USA ARMED FORCES TO GIVE 0,000 TO ARMENIAN NERKIN SASNASHEN VILLAGE FOR REPAIRING KINDERGARDEN
NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY
SEPTEMBER 2, 2009
YEREVAN
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 2, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. USA armed forces
will give about 0,000 USD to repair and refurbish the kindergarten
and complete landscaping of the grounds. Defense Attache Lieutenant
Colonel Robert Webster announced this after the ceremony commemorating
the 51th anniversary of a tragic flight and crash of a U.S. Air Force
C-130 aircraft in the village of Nerkin Sasnashen. "Completion of
this Office of Defense Cooperation repair project will help show our
appreciation to the villagers who have continued to bring honor to
the memory of those servicemen who perished here in the line of duty
over 50 years ago," he noted.
Members of the USA embassy also presented 80 backpacks with schools
supplies for the children to use when they return to kindergarten
early next year.
On September 2nd, 1958, a United States Air Force
reconnaissance-configured C-130, with 17 airmen inside, was shot down
over the airspace of Soviet Armenia. The airplane crashed approximately
200 meters north of the village of Nerkin Sasnashen. In 1993, the
people of Sasnashen erected a monument to the fallen airmen at the
same place. Since that time, the villagers commemorate the site on the
anniversary of the crash to honor those who sacrificed their lives in
service to their country. According to the U.S. embassy in Armenia,
the U.S. Office of Defense Cooperation in Armenia works to foster
U.S. government and industry assistance to Armenia in the defense
sphere. The office operates under the authority of the U.S. Chief
of Mission in Armenia and the U.S. European Command, located in
Stuttgart, Germany.