★★★ Memorial Monday ★★★
LTjg Cynthia Grubbs, USN '80 was lost on November 26, 1983 when the C-1A she was piloting likely collided with another C-1A and crashed into the Mediterranean Sea near Sardinia, Italy. The two aircraft were flying to Sigonella from Palma, Spain. Six others were also killed, including her fiancé, LT Michael G. Veringa. They were members of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VR) 24.
From Shipmate:
Appointed to the Naval Academy from the State of Texas, Lt. (jg) Grubbs had attended the University of Texas studying aero engineering for a year prior to reporting to the Academy, where she was graduated with the Class of 1980. An extremely versatile and talented Midshipman, she had her private pilot's license, was a sky diver, a scuba enthusiast, and an accomplished artist when she reported to the Academy.
From the Austin-American Statesman:
"The Blue Angels was Suzanne's dream," said her mother, Barbara Grubbs of Austin. "Instead, she died with her sweetheart. He was a pilot, too, and they always flew together." ....
HER AUSTIN FRIENDS remembered Grubbs as always dynamic, always setting high goals and usually attaining them.
"She stood head and shoulders above her class at Austin High," said Adam Lopez, Grubbs' counselor when she graduated from Austin High School in 1973.
Lopez especially remembered helping her get a part-time job selling sporting goods at an Austin department store. It stuck in his mind, he said, because the store manager first Insisted that he had had enough of teen-age employees.
"He only had to meet her to change his mind," Lopez said.
By then, Grubbs was a scuba diver who enjoyed treasure hunting off the coast of Mexico. Later, she earned a private pilot's license, made 26 parachute jumps and majored in mathematics at UT for two years before transferring to the academy when the Navy began accepting women.
AS A CHILD, Grubbs had decorated her bedroom with model rockets and spacecraft and said Chuck Yeager, the test pilot who broke the sound barrier, was her special hero.
Cynthia was survived by her parents.
To Honor! ⚓
https://usnamemorialhall.org/index.php/CYNTHIA_S._GRUBBS,_LTJG,_USN