By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
GORHAM – It will be a solemn day in Gorham Saturday Nov. 25 at 1 p.m. as funeral services for Army Staff Sgt. Tanner W. Grone will be held with full military honors in the gymnasium of the Gorham Middle-High School, 120 Main Street, Gorham, NH.
The 25-year-old, assigned to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, died Nov. 10 with four other soldiers when the helicopter they were in experienced an “in-flight emergency” and crashed into the waters of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, according to a news release from the Department of Defense.
The crew was assigned to the region since the Hamas attacks on Israel Oct. 7 and was performing a routine refueling mission when the helicopter went down.
His parents, Steve and Erica Grone of Gorham, were at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware earlier today when their son’s flag-draped coffin was returned to U.S. soil and honored in a dignified transfer.
Others killed in the helicopter crash include Sgt. Cade M. Wolfe, 24 or Mankato, Minnesota; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Shane M. Barnes, 34, of Sacramento, Calif.; Chief Warrant Officer 3 Stephen R. Dwyer, 38, of Clarksville, Tenn.; and Sgt. Andrew P. Southward, 27, of Apache Junction, Arizona.
Grone was well known in this small mountain town, and loved to snowboard at nearby Wildcat Mountain, friends said, and in his earlier days played local sports at the high school.
He attended UNH for one year but enlisted in 2017 and had been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq but told his family that this would be his last deployment, that he was looking forward to becoming a helicopter pilot.
Gov. Chris Sununu said the bravery of Grone and his fellow fallen soldiers will not be forgotten.
Correction: This version corrects the date of the funeral and provides more detail.