Two Navy Pilot Sons Killed, 16 Years Apart

July 30 -- When Al Bianchi got the phone call from his daughter-in-law, the sound of her voice alone brought tears to his eyes, as a gut instinct told him she was about to tell him he'd lost another son.

He was right. Barrie Bianchi told him that his son — her husband — Navy Cmdr. Kevin Bianchi had been killed in action. He was one of three members of a Navy helicopter crew confirmed dead in a crash in Sicily on July 16.

"It's hard to describe the feeling," Bianchi, of Maplewood, N.J., said. "I knew right away."

The sharp sense of sudden loss was a familiar feeling. Sixteen years earlier, Al Bianchi lost another son, Kevin's older brother Robert, a Navy helicopter pilot who was killed in a crash in the Philippines.

One Last Look

Kevin Bianchi, 40, was a father of three, stationed in Italy, with his family.

"It was his birthday the day before he died," Barrie Bianchi said. "He turned 40 on July 15 and the kids and I made him a cake and decorated the cake. He came home from work and we celebrated with them, blew out the candles and gave him his presents."

That evening, she and her husband hired a babysitter so that they could go out for dinner.

The next morning, Barrie said she watched him leave for work for the last time.

He died when an MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter crashed and caught fire on a roadside about 10 miles southwest of the Navy base at Sigonella, in eastern Sicily.

His brother, Robert Bianchi, was piloting a twin-engine HH-46 on a routine training mission when it crashed in the Philippines, 32 miles north of the base at Subic Bay on March 23, 1987. He was 26 years old when he died.

A Chat with Margaret Thatcher

Despite the dual tragedies, the Bianchis are determined to celebrate the lives of their lost sons.

Jim Bianchi recalls how his younger brother, Kevin, loved to stir things up. One time, he and some Navy officer buddies were staying at a London hotel when they learned that British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was also there.