U.S. Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-WV) delivered remarks Monday at the public unveiling of a roadside marker memorializing the tragic 1970 plane crash that claimed the lives of 75 Marshall University football players, coaches and supporters and the plane’s flight crew. Text of the Congressman Rahall’s remarks follows.

Thank you Commissioner Sammons, for the kind invitation to join you today. We all appreciate the hard work you and your fellow Commissioners James Booton and Rick Wellman did on making this important marker a reality.

Thanks also to the Larry Salyers and Tri-State Airport, the Department of Highways, the West Virginia History and Archives Commission, and the countless individuals, many of whom are here today.

Old age is not supposed to trump youth.

The sick should not outrun athletes.

Loss is seldom known to leaders.

Yet the winds of fate are not so easily tamed.

Here on this hallowed ground, the winds of fate prevailed.

But only for a moment. A moment that must live on.

For it is a moment that still instructs. Still a moment that moves our hearts.

Still a moment that stirs hope in the human spirit, that we will not be defeated.

That man will not, in the words written long ago, merely survive, he will prevail.

We are Marshall. You bet we are.

Everyone who worked to make today possible will touch many lives yet unknown.

People now will pause more than pass by this memory. As people reflect, those whose memories still shine in our minds will be reflected again and again.

Their strength, their vitality, their camaraderie, their spirit, and their promise, instilling a renewed purpose and steadfast resolve in those who pay their respects.

You have sown a rich garden, from which good will be reaped. Well done.