In Memory: U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Jack Casey ’19

U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Jack Casey ’19, a Marine aviator, died Feb. 6, 2024, when the CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter in which he and four other Marines were flying crashed in Southern California during an especially intense storm. The helicopter was taking part in a training flight, flying from Creech Air Force Base near Las Vegas, Nevada, to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California, when it went down in the mountains near San Diego.

At the time of his passing, Casey was based at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar as part of the Marine Aircraft Group, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.

Casey, a physics major and astronomy minor at VMI, matriculated from Dover, New Hampshire. As a cadet, he was a member of cadre and commanded Company I in his 1st Class year.

Immediately after the accident, Eli Facemire ’19, associate chaplain and Class of 2019 president, sent a message to the VMI community praising Casey’s passion for leadership and service.

“[Casey] was loved by all of ’1-9, our rats, and many others who passed through barracks during our time at the Institute,” Facemire wrote. “He was a tremendous servant leader in India Company and set an example of ‘brother rat spirit’ that was unmatched. He also committed fully to all he set out to accomplish and never failed to bring many others along on his pursuit of excellence. And yet, perhaps more than anything, Jack was just a lot of fun. We will miss him dearly.”

Facemire explained that he and Casey first met under less-than-ideal circumstances, but even then, Casey made a positive impression. On the weekend of fall field training exercises during their rat year, both found themselves confined to post hospital because they were ill.

“The cool thing was even in that moment, I remember Jack being very personable and just pleasant to talk to, even though he felt awful,” Facemire recounted. “Jack had such a large personality, and he could make anyone laugh. … There wasn’t a life he couldn’t impact.”

In the wake of Casey’s passing, Facemire organized a GoFundMe campaign to cover expenses incurred by Casey’s wife, Emma Lindberg. In a matter of weeks, that campaign raised approximately $42,000.

Throughout their time at VMI and into their early military careers, Casey and U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Mike Banholzer ’19 seemed to have their lives running on parallel tracks. They trained together, commissioned together May 15, 2019—even standing next to one another due to the sequential nature of their last names in the alphabet—and later earned their flight wings together at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida.

“He was the best of us,” said Banholzer of Casey.

Their friendship, forged in barracks and Marine option Naval ROTC, continued and deepened despite the constant moves of a military career. Banholzer described Casey as imbued with the brother rat spirit—“someone just always willing to help someone”—who helped Banholzer box up his things when Banholzer was reassigned from Texas to Florida. “He would never say no to you,” Banholzer noted.

When tough times came, Casey was there for his friends. “We did anything for each other,” said Banholzer, who, like Casey, is a helicopter pilot.

“My mom passed away 3 years ago, and [Casey] was literally one of the first people that I talked to about it,” Banholzer recalled. “If I was having a rough time, I remember he would come over to my place, and we would sit on my balcony in my apartment … until like 3 o’clock in the morning.”

Fittingly, Banholzer was there for his friend for one final, solemn act of solidarity as he served as the Marine Corps escort, accompanying Casey’s body on the cross-continental flight from Miramar to Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware—a duty that Banholzer described as “probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”

But even after the plane landed in Delaware, Casey was not without alumni support, as U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Corris “Corey” Atkins ’18 escorted his fallen comrade’s body back to his hometown in New Hampshire for burial.

There, a number of alumni served as pallbearers at Casey’s funeral, among them U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Michael Meier ’19, U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Jay Forehand ’19, U.S. Navy Lt. Dominic Mutter ’16, Corbin Stynes ’19, and Ben Dudek ’19.
In addition to his wife, Casey is survived by his mother, Catherine Robinson Casey; father, James B. Casey; grandparents, Jean Robinson, Janice Casey, and James Casey; and siblings, James D. Casey (Kristen Tavares), Patrick J. Casey, Sean J. Casey (Caitlin Parsons), and Catherine E. Casey (Bryan DiCredico).

He was preceded in death by his grandfather, Richard G. Robinson.