Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C. -- “A great soul serves everyone all the time. A great soul never dies. It brings us together again and again.”
This quote from Maya Angelou, American author and poet, describes the feeling of the memorial service held Sept. 13 at the aviation memorial aboard Marine Corps Air Station New River for Jerry G. Grier, a retired master gunnery sergeant who passed away Aug. 23.
Grier devoted more than 40 years of his life to Marine aviation, from the time he enlisted in 1970 as a CH-46 Sea Knight mechanic to his later days a civilian mechanic with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Training Squadron (VMMT) 204.
In 1988, the master sergeant (at the time) started supervising a team of Marines and Sailors for the research and development of the MV-22B Osprey.
The next year, Grier witnessed the Osprey’s first flight.
After retiring in 1996, Grier worked as a UC-12F Huron mechanic aboard MCAS Cherry Point, N.C. Three years later, he learned VMMT-204 was looking for experienced Osprey mechanics.
Grier worked there until 2007, when he deployed for almost two years to support multiple tiltrotor squadrons. After deployment, he worked as an unmanned aerial vehicle field service representative for a short period before returning to VMMT-204.
Grier never stopped fixing aircraft and caring for his Marines.
More than 100 friends and family members came to honor the memory of the life-long Marine.
“In Okinawa, Grier jumped a NiCad (nickel cadmium) battery in a 46 with six batteries with two old rusted jumper cables he found in the sand,” said Lacour. “That is a true story, and to this day I still don’t understand how it worked, but it did. Grier always wanted to try something different.”
Another speaker, retired CWO5 George Wooten, spoke about his devotion to his Marines.
Wooten explained how Grier took care of him when his wife was sick in the hospital by letting him go early on the weekends to make the drive, always making sure his gas tank was filled up and getting a friend who lived near the hospital to take him in on the weekends.
“When you worked on the flight line for Jerry Grier and you were one of Jerry’s boys, you were taken care of,” said Wooten.
Wooten said Grier also pushed his Marines to work hard and stay devoted to their duties of maintaining the aircraft.
“When you worked on night crew 35 years ago, 85 percent of the time you saw the sun come up,” said Wooten. “There was no such thing as leaving an aircraft down for maintenance. It just wasn’t in the vocabulary.”
At the end of the ceremony for the life-long Marine, the “Marines’ Hymn” was played followed by “Taps.”
Grier’s ashes were placed in a converted Osprey drive tube, a fitting resting place for a man devoted to keeping aircraft in the air.
Grier is survived by his wife, Jacqui, his three children and five stepchildren.
In lieu of flowers, Grier’s friends and family ask that donations be made to the Wounded Warrior Project.