On March 10, 2015, a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter of the United States Army crashed off the coast of the Florida Panhandle during a training exercise at Eglin Air Force Base,[3] killing all eleven people on board.

[8] There were eleven people on board the helicopter at the time, of whom seven were U.S Marines assigned to a special operations unit and four were U.S Army soldiers and members of the Louisiana National Guard.

"[1]: 14  [11]: 10:56.316, 10:59.142  Both pilots showed "increasingly erratic flight control inputs" and had "anxious verbal exchanges" at this point:[1]: 4  CW4 Griffin commanded rapid climb and descent maneuvers and put the aircraft into a spin.

[4] The search for the passengers, which focused on waters east of Navarre, Florida,[4] was hindered by heavy fog in the area.

[5] On the morning of March 11, a spokesman for the Eglin Air Force Base said that human remains had been found in the area of the search.

[15] Contributing causes included the pilots' choice to fly in weather and visibility that did not meet minimum requirements and a breakdown in aircrew communication, both before and during the mission.

[1]: 15, 16 CW4 Griffin had been briefed on March 7 that operations with night vision goggles could be conducted under visual meteorological conditions (VMC) only, establishing minimum requirements for the cloud ceiling [1,000 feet (300 m)] and visibility [3 miles (5 km)]; these requirements were subsequently included and acknowledged on all mission briefing sheets.

[1]: 11  In addition, prior to takeoff, an observer at the drop zone called Hurlburt Field to receive a weather report at 1926 CST, concerned that he could not see the lights of the 300 feet (91 m) tall control tower, which was approximately 2.3 miles (3.7 km) from his position.

The observer voiced his concerns about the visibility by telephone to Master Sergeant (MSgt) Thomas Saunders, one of the Marines assigned to fly on MOJO 69 that night.

[16] The marchers bore a paddle recovered from the wreck and upon arriving at Camp Lejune, presented it to the commanding officer of the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion.

The memorial, which was designed by local artist Randy New and built by Corey Swindle in Alabama, was organized by a group of 35 community leaders.