★★★ Memorial Monday ★★★
Lt. Robert Ledbetter, III '69, USNR was a chaplain attached to the 26th Marine Amphibious Unit when the CH-53D he was riding in crashed immediately after taking off from USS Guadalcanal (LPH 7) on October 15, 1985. Fourteen Marines were killed and four survived; at the time it was the second-worst Marine Corps helicopter crash in history.
From Shipmate:
Born in Watseka, Illinois, he was raised in Norfolk where he graduated high school. He received an appointment to the Naval Academy with the Class of '69. Upon graduation and commissioning on 4 June 1969, Ensign Ledbetter reported to the oceangoing minesweeper USS Skill out of Charleston. He was next assigned to the recommissioning crew of USS Luce (DLG-38) in the yards at Philadelphia, but ultimately homeported in Newport. During 1973 and 1974 he assisted with the inception of the Navy's race relations program in Washington, D.C. After a year at the Pentagon, he resigned his commission.
During his hiatus from active duty, he worked as staff representative of the Officers' Christian Fellowship at the Naval Academy ('75-'77) and at the Coast Guard Academy ('77-'81), and subsequently as youth pastor of First Baptist Church of Wellsboro, Pa., while also serving on the staff of His Thousand Hills Youth Ranch ('81-'82). He earned a Masters of Theological Studies at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass., in 1979, and a Masters of Divinity from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in 1984. While completing this later degree, he was awarded a fellowship to work in the Clinical Pastoral Education program at Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia.
In 1983 Mr. Ledbetter received his (conditional) commission as an ensign in the Theological Student Program and attended the Chaplains School Basic Course in Newport, R.I. during the summer. Upon completion, and ordination, he was commissioned as a Lt. (j.g.) CHC, USNR and was recalled to active duty in June 1984 to serve with 3/4 at Camp LeJeune.
Robert was survived by his wife, their three children, his parents and three sisters.
To Honor! ⚓
https://usnamemorialhall.org/index.php/ROBERT_L._LEDBETTER,_III,_LT,_USNR