This South Shore Navy SEAL died in a parachute accident. How his hometown is honoring him
COHASSET – When Special Warfare Operator and former Navy SEAL Michael Ernst died during a parachute training accident in February, the Cohasset native became the town’s first service member to fall in the line of duty in 54 years.
Cohasset will dedicate the Michael Ernst Memorial Square in his honor on Sunday, Oct 22, at Sohier Street and Fair Oaks Lane, according to the town website.
The square dedication will take place at noon, followed by a separate ceremony at 1 p.m., when the name of Ernst’s mother will be added to the Gold Star Mothers Memorial at Woodside Cemetery. Mrs. Ernst will be in attendance. The public is invited to both ceremonies.
Ernst, who was 36 at the time of his death, was training in Arizona when he died Feb. 19, military officials said. He was performing a high-altitude, low-opening jump, or HALO, at an airfield in Marana, Arizona, just outside Tuscon.
Ernst grew up in Cohasset with his siblings and parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Ernst Jr. He graduated from Thayer Academy in Braintree before attending Denison College, according to a Cohasset Facebook post.
In 2009, Ernst enlisted in the Navy. He began Navy SEAL training the following year, graduating in 2012.
He was awarded a Silver Star, the military’s third-highest award for valor in combat, according to records released by the Navy.
Ernst left behind a wife and two children under the age of five.
“We in Cohasset are very vigilant about making sure that we recognize and memorialize our fallen servicemen,” said Glenn Pratt, a member of Cohasset's Veterans Memorial Committee.
A veteran himself, Pratt comes from a multi-generational military family. He is a founding member of the Veterans Memorial Committee, which formed in 1969, the same year five Cohasset servicemen died in Vietnam.
The original committee, which included Pratt and three brothers of the late servicemen, built Veterans Memorial Park the following year and dedicated it on Memorial Day, 1970.
"I’m an old-timer," Pratt said. "I’m from the Vietnam era. We were all young people in Cohasset in 1969 when so many kids our age got killed. We decided we’ve got to remember these people."
Pratt described the dedication of Michael Ernst Memorial Square as “a fairly involved event,” with a veterans march, military-style gun salutes, guest speakers and a presentation of the flag to Ernst’s mother. The keynote speaker at the Gold Star Mothers Memorial will be Jo Ann Maitland, a former president of American Gold Star Mothers.
The square was chosen for its high visibility, sitting on the same road that goes by the Music Circus and Cohasset elementary schools. “It’s high, high visibility,” Pratt said. “We like it for that reason.”
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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Cohasset honors Navy SEAL Michael Ernst killed in training accident
