Some of the victim names released in plane crash

Associated Press

The 15 Marines and a Navy sailor killed in a plane crash Monday in Mississippi came from all over the country.

Six of the Marines and the sailor were from an elite Marine Raider battalion at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Nine were based out of Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, N.Y., home of a Marine Aerial Refueling and Transport Squadron.

Here are brief portraits of some of the victims:

Staff Sgt. William Joseph Kundrat, 33, grew up in Frederick, Md., where the Marine’s parents, Joseph and Lynda, still live.

He was stationed at Camp Lejeune. Said his mother: “He was a great Marine.”

Gunnery Sgt. Brendan Johnson, 46, told his father he had the best job in the Marine Corps.

Kevin Johnson of Colchester, Vt., recalled his son said, “I get to fly everywhere.” His son was based at Stewart, traveling back and forth across the Atlantic and Pacific and touring many countries.

Sgt. Julian Kevianne, 31, joined the Marines in 2009 because he wanted to protect and defend the country, his brother told the Detroit Free Press.

Kevianne, a flight engineer, was based at Stewart.

Owen Lennon, 26, grew up in Pomona, N.Y., playing football and tennis for Ramapo High School in Rockland County before graduating in 2008.

Lennon was stationed at Stewart.

Joseph Murray’s family recalls him as a ukulele player, former surfer kid and deeply religious family man who excelled in the Marine Corps.

Murray was stationed at Camp Lejeune.

Dan Baldassare, 20, had wanted to be a Marine since he was in middle school, his friend Dan McGowan told WPIX-TV .

Baldassare was stationed at Stewart.

Staff Sgt. Joshua Snowden, a flight engineer on the transport plane, grew up in the Dallas area and graduated from Highland Park High School in 2004, having already signed up for the Marines, The Dallas Morning News reports.

Snowden himself often displayed his Texas roots and love of the Dallas Cowboys on Facebook, even while stationed at Stewart.

“I can tell you that Josh loved his family and friends, God, his country, and country western music and dancing,” Snowden’s aunt, Linda Hughes, told the Times Herald-Record of Middletown, N.Y. “He was one of the warmest, kindest, more patriotic people I’ve ever known.”