Laughlin AFB Identifies John Graziano As Pilot Killed In T-38C Talon Crash

On Wednesday, the Air Force identified pilots killed and injured when a T-38C Talon jet crashed at the Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas.

The deceased pilot was identified as Capt. John F. Graziano, 28, who was serving as an instructor pilot with the 87th Flying Training Squadron. He was from Elkridge, Maryland, and was survived by his mother, father, sisters and brother.

Graziano’s co-pilot was Capt. Mark Palyok, who was also an instructor pilot with the 87th Flying Training Squadron at Laughlin. Following the crash, Palyok was transported to the Val Verde Regional Medical Center in Texas. After receiving treatment, he was released Wednesday.

"Knowing how everyone is affected by this tragedy, my immediate concern is making sure that every member of our Laughlin family is okay," Col. Lee Gentile, 47th Flying Training Wing commander, said in a Facebook post. "Together, we are Laughlin and now is the time that we stand together to take care of one another."

In an extended video, Gentile said the entire air base had been affected by the death of Graziano and it had taken a toll on him personally, especially since it was the first pilot to be killed by a training aircraft crash. Back in November last year, a T-38 Talon crashed five miles northwest of the base in Del Rio, Texas, killing Capt. Paul Barbour.

“Everybody’s hurting. Everybody, including me. That’s our second loss in the last year, the second T-38 crash. There’s a lot of folks here on Laughlin, teammates, airmen, family, friends, that are grieving the loss of John Graziano, and my heart goes out to his friends and his family as they work through this difficult time in their lives.”

The cause of the crash has not been determined yet.

“Our investigators are doing everything possible to ensure they investigate this incident to the fullest.” said Gentile.

As investigation into the crash was going on, all the flights were grounded at the Laughlin Air Force Base.

On Tuesday, the Laughlin Air Force Base posted on its official Facebook page: “An Air Force T-38 Talon assigned here at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, crashed at approximately 7:40 p.m. [8:40 p.m. EST] today on base. Emergency personnel are on the scene.”

The T-38 Talon jets are twin-engine supersonic flights manufactured by Northrop Grumman. The average age of the Northrop T-38s was approaching 50 years. In September, the Air Force struck $9.2 billion contract with Boeing to build the service's future training aircrafts for instructor pilots. However, new jets will only arrive at the training bases in the next decade.

As many as five T-38s, including the recent one, have crashed over a period of 12 months in Air Force bases in Texas, Oklahoma and Mississippi.