Thread by @steeljawscribe

A #MemorialDay Thread🧵1/
Lt. Miroslav "Steve" Zilberman
Came to the US from Ukraine w/his parents. Joined USN out of HS & became an ET. 2003 later commissioned under Seaman to Admiral program after graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a degree in comp science.

2/Entered flight training, CQ’d earning wings of gold and eventually became an E-2C Hawkeye pilot w/the VAW-121 Bluetails, embarked with CVW-7 in USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69), operating in the AG supporting OEF over Afghanistan

3/6 Apr 2010 returning to IKE lost the port engine due to oil pressure. Starboard engine experiences a “runaway” prop causing rapid loss of altitude - unable to feather prop. As the aircraft commander this young LT, husband and father calls for the crew to bailout

4/ The Hawkeye has no ejection seats necessitating everyone to bailout through the main entrance hatch. Since it began flying in 1960 there has only been 1 successful bailout by the entire crew.
One.
(typical mission: 2x pilots and 3xNFOs, but for this mission only 2 NFOs)

5/ NATOPS calls for the autopilot to be set by the pilot to enable all to bailout, but just barely keeping the a/c level long enough to enable the bailout requires every ounce of his strength. 3 made it out. He didn’t. The Hawkeye crashed and his body was not recovered.

6/ Lt. Miroslav "Steve" Zilberman, 31, husband to Katrina, father to Sarah, was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with the citation reading in part “Without his courageous actions, the entire crew would have perished…”

7/. All gave some…some gave all.

Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bid'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
O hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea.