III MEF Marines, MC2 Sarah Villegas
Three U.S. Marines killed in a helicopter crash off the Australian coast over the weekend were identified by military officials on Monday. A message posted on the Marines’ official Twitter account named the men as 1st Lt. Benjamin Robert Cross, Cpl. Nathan Ordway—both members of the flight crew—and Pfc. Ruben Velasco, who had just turned 19. “The loss of every Marine is felt across our entire Marine Corps family,” Col. Tye R. Wallace, Commanding Officer, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, told CBS News. The U.S. military is expected to review operating procedures for the MV-22 Osprey aircraft after the fatal accident, which occurred Saturday during a training exercise. Twenty-three other service members who’d been aboard at the time of the incident were successfully rescued.