MCB Camp Pendleton

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I MEF dedicates facility to fallen Marine

24 Mar 2006 | Lance Cpl. Patrick J. Floto Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- A new, state-of-the-art Dive Locker facility was dedicated to one of the seven Marines who perished in a Dec. 1999 helicopter crash.

While conducting a training exercise as a part of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit pre-deployment workup cycle Dec. 9, 1999, Cpl. Mark M. Baca Jr. and six fellow Marines with 5th Platoon, 1st Force Reconnaissance Company died when their CH-46 helicopter became entangled with the netting of the USNS Pecos and pitched upside down into the Pacific Ocean.

“He loved the Marine Corps,” said Jean Baca, his wife from St. Peter, Minn. “He used to run to work every morning. If he wasn’t at work or at the gym, he was with us. It was just us and the Marines.”

Baca, from Arvada, Colo., was always a very physically strong athlete, using his skills to excel on the Arvada High School’s track, baseball and football teams. When he decided to become a Reconnaissance Marine, he joined the swim team in order to train for the rigors to come.

While serving as a reconnaissance Marine with the 1st Force Reconnaissance Company, 1st Marine Division, he was qualified as a Marine Combatant Diver and Navy and Marine Corps Parachutist.

After a deployment to the Arabian Gulf with the battalion, he was assigned to the I Marine Expeditionary Force Consolidated Dive Locker as one of the first members of the newly created organization.

“Everyday I saw Cpl. Baca working in the dive locker, he smiled his contagious smile no matter how hard things got,” said Col. Robert J. Coates, commanding officer of Marine Corps Special Operations Command, Detachment 1. “The only time I saw his smile even bigger was the day he told me he was getting married and reenlisting.”

The 15th MEU Memorial Fund has established a memorial fund for the families and a scholarship trust fund for children of the deceased Marines. In addition, the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Fund presented Baca’s six-year-old son, Derek, with a second $10,000 education bond.

The dive locker now has a plaque engraved with a portrait of Baca and the words ‘Devoted husband, father, son and friend whose contributions strengthened the Corps and all who knew him.’

“He epitomized what we are as Marines,” said Coates. “He will not be forgotten and in this building is dedicated in his honor.”

I MEF dedicates facility to fallen Marine

24 Mar 2006 | Lance Cpl. Patrick J. Floto Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton

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MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- A new, state-of-the-art Dive Locker facility was dedicated to one of the seven Marines who perished in a Dec. 1999 helicopter crash.

While conducting a training exercise as a part of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit pre-deployment workup cycle Dec. 9, 1999, Cpl. Mark M. Baca Jr. and six fellow Marines with 5th Platoon, 1st Force Reconnaissance Company died when their CH-46 helicopter became entangled with the netting of the USNS Pecos and pitched upside down into the Pacific Ocean.

“He loved the Marine Corps,” said Jean Baca, his wife from St. Peter, Minn. “He used to run to work every morning. If he wasn’t at work or at the gym, he was with us. It was just us and the Marines.”

Baca, from Arvada, Colo., was always a very physically strong athlete, using his skills to excel on the Arvada High School’s track, baseball and football teams. When he decided to become a Reconnaissance Marine, he joined the swim team in order to train for the rigors to come.

While serving as a reconnaissance Marine with the 1st Force Reconnaissance Company, 1st Marine Division, he was qualified as a Marine Combatant Diver and Navy and Marine Corps Parachutist.

After a deployment to the Arabian Gulf with the battalion, he was assigned to the I Marine Expeditionary Force Consolidated Dive Locker as one of the first members of the newly created organization.

“Everyday I saw Cpl. Baca working in the dive locker, he smiled his contagious smile no matter how hard things got,” said Col. Robert J. Coates, commanding officer of Marine Corps Special Operations Command, Detachment 1. “The only time I saw his smile even bigger was the day he told me he was getting married and reenlisting.”

The 15th MEU Memorial Fund has established a memorial fund for the families and a scholarship trust fund for children of the deceased Marines. In addition, the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Fund presented Baca’s six-year-old son, Derek, with a second $10,000 education bond.

The dive locker now has a plaque engraved with a portrait of Baca and the words ‘Devoted husband, father, son and friend whose contributions strengthened the Corps and all who knew him.’

“He epitomized what we are as Marines,” said Coates. “He will not be forgotten and in this building is dedicated in his honor.”