Brooks Gruber (USMC)
PAVE LOW Pilot #256
23 Jun 1965 - 8 Apr 2000 (aged 34)
Maj Brooks Scott "Chucky" Gruber, USMC. was born in Boston, Mass and graduated from Virginia Military Institute cum laude in 1987 in History and Modern Languages.
Commissioned 2nd Lt from NROTC, he had been a Naval Aviator since 1987. Brooks and Connie married in 1992, after meeting on a blind date two years earlier. He was a helicopter pilot, a first lieutenant, a month away from being deployed for the Gulf War. She was a teacher at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville.
Brooks was an exchange pilot on loan from the Marines to the Air Force to fly on the MH-53 PAVE LOW helicopter.
Brooks was killed on active duty when his MV-22 Osprey Tilt-rotor aircraft crashed during a night training exercise at Marana Regional Airport near Tucson, Arizona. 18 others were killed in the crash.