Gov. Walz orders flags to half-staff Thursday for National Guard serviceman's funeral
The Krippner family, which owns the property where the Minnesota National Guard helicopter crashed, raised an American flag in honor of the three soldiers who died. (FOX 9)
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Gov. Tim Walz has ordered all flags to be flown at half-staff Thursday in honor of Warrant Officer Candidate Kort M. Plantenberg, who died in a National Guard Black Hawk helicopter crash near Kimball, Minn. last week.
The half-staff orders are in place for all state and federal buildings from sunrise to sunset Thursday, which is when Plantenberg, 28, will be remembered at a funeral mass at a church in Collegeville, Minn.
Chief Warrant Officers II Charles Nord (left) and James Rogers Junior (right), and Sergeant Kort Plantenberg (middle) were identified Saturday as the three soldiers killed in Thursday's National Guard helicopter crash. (Minnesota National Guard / Facebook)
The two other servicemen who died in the crash will be honored with half-staff orders as well on the days of their interments. James Rogers' funeral will be Dec. 15 and Charles Nord's will be Dec. 16.
Sergeant Kort Plantenberg was a St. Cloud, Minnesota native and a graduate of Albany Area High School in 2009 and enlisted with the Minnesota National Guard in March of 2016 as an aircraft electrician. Aside from his service, Sgt. Plantenberg was a member of the National Guard's biathlon team and competed in the Chief National Guard Bureau Biathlon Championships last year.