Helicopter Pilot’s Body Recovered From Sea

The body of a fourth El Toro Marine missing since a helicopter crashed into the ocean May 10 has been recovered by Navy crews, officials said Friday.

The body was identified as that of Maj. Dennis Dogs, 34, of Mission Viejo. He was the pilot of the CH-46 Sea Knight when it crashed about six miles off the coast of Encinitas, said Sgt. Claudia Nelson, a spokeswoman at Camp Pendleton.

The bodies of the three other victims were recovered last month from roughly the same area, nearly 2,100 feet below the surface.

Since then, crews from three ships have been searching the area, said Navy Cmdr. Kevin Wensing. “It has been a very difficult, very tedious and very solemn thing to do,” said Wensing. “But they did not give up.”

The Navy’s Deep Submergence Unit used staffed and remote-controlled diving vessels to recover the last body, a process that required a sea-lift command ship to remove portions of the wreckage first, said Navy Lt. Lydia Leporte, who supervised the team.

“This body was more difficult to reach and harder to find because it was entangled in the wreckage,” Leporte said.

The four Marines were part of an El Toro helicopter squadron serving with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. The men were preparing for a six-month deployment by practicing skills that typically involve transporting Marines out of combat zones, officials said.

The other victims were Lance Cpl. Rodolfo Guajardo Jr., 21, of Beach Park, Ill.; Capt. Paul D. Barnes, 27, of Lawrenceburg, Ky.; and Cpl. Michael J. Tsoris, 21, of Racine, Wis.

No information has been released about the Marine Corps’ ongoing investigation into the cause of the crash.