
U.S. Coast Guard Ensign Morgan Garrett, 24 years old, from Weddington, N.C., died in an Oct. 23, 2020, crash of a Navy T-6B Texan II trainer aircraft in Foley, Ala. US Navy photo.
US Naval Institute News services has identified the two killed in the crash of a U.S. Navy T-6B Texan II training aircraft. They were U.S. Navy Lt. Rhiannon Ross, a 30-year-old instructor pilot, and U.S. Coast Guard Ensign Morgan Garrett, a 24-year-old student pilot.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air . . .Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
From the New London Day, https://www.theday.com/military-news/20201026/coast-guard-academy-graduate-who-died-in-training-accident-was-kind-soul-full-of-humor-and-joy
“We remember one of our own” https://www.mycg.uscg.mil/News/Article/2407820/we-remember-one-of-our-own/
From MyCG: https://www.mycg.uscg.mil/News/Article/2658506/lieutenant-junior-grade-garrett-laid-to-rest-at-arlington-national-cemetery/
Lieutenant Junior Grade Garrett laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery
By Kara Noto
Washington, DC, June 15, 2021 —
Lt.j.g. Morgan Garrett has been laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, surrounded by family and her military community. Garett and her U.S. Navy flight instructor were killed during a training mission in October 2020.
The Coast Guard aviation community recognized the loss of Lt.j.g. Garrett with a C-130 flyover of the formal military burial, and members of the Coast Guard Women’s Leadership Initiative were in present to honor to Morgan’s life, service and sacrifice.
Originally from North Carolina, Garrett graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in 2019 and went on to flight school in Pensacola, Fla. Her performance and demeanor earned the respect of the Academy community, where she served in the regimental staff, and as leader within the student aviators and women in aviation community.Garrett was posthumously promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade.
Adm. Charles Ray, Vice Commandant – a longstanding leader in the military aviation community – presided over the November memorial service at the National Naval Aviation Museum, Naval Air Station Pensacola. Ray also attended the Arlington ceremony.
The loss of our Shipmate is a stark reminder of the dangerous training and operations Coast Guard women and men perform every day.
“Her life mattered. She honored our service, she honored the naval aviation community, and every member of our nation’s military,” Ray said during the November memorial service. “We will learn from her accident, just as we learned from her life and how she lived it.”