By BROOKE SNAVELY
CENTRAL OREGON DAILY
A Marine from Bend who died in a training accident three weeks ago was remembered Tuesday night during a hike up Pilot Butte.
Private First Class Jack Ostrovsky was among nine Marines and a Navy Corpsman killed when an amphibious assault vehicle sank during a training exercise July 30 off the coast of southern California.
The cause is still under investigation.
The hike for Ostrovsky was organized by local veterans who never met him but felt the need to honor the fallen Marine here in his adopted hometown.
They chose a hike up Pilot Butte because Ostrovsky hiked up it Memorial Day 2019 in honor of all service people in all branches of the military.
August 18 was chosen because it would have been Ostrovsky’s 21st birthday.
“Jack loved being a Marine and we loved that he loved being a Marine,” Peter and Lynn Ostrovsky, Jack’s parents, said. “I think he found his passion. He was living his dream. What more could we ask for as parents that our son be happy?”
Ostrovsky’s parents recently returned from Dover AFB in Maryland, where the Department of Defense conducted an honorable transfer of their son to the Armed Forces Medical Examiner’s Office as part of the investigation into the accident that claimed nine lives.
“I have a twin brother and that really breaks my heart to see his twin brother here tonight without his,” said Aimee Beach of Team Red White & Blue, a group that helps veterans get engaged in their communities. “I feel really bad. That’s their sacrifice. That’s the family’s sacrifice to have lost him.”
Ostrovsky’s body will be transported to Bellingham, Washington, where he grew up, for a service on August 26.
Before then, his parents will participate in a unit memorial at Camp Pendleton to observe all the lives that were lost.
“We really do feel supported. It does bring us comfort,” said Peter Ostrovsky. “We’ve only been in this town for two years and our son only lived here for 11 months before he joined the Marine Corps. It makes us feel really good.”
As the sun set on Pilot Butte, an aide to Congressman Greg Walden presented a flag that flew over the nation’s capitol to Jack Ostrovsky’s parents.
