On January 20, 2021, three National Guard members were killed when their helicopter crashed in an upstate New York field, just south of Rochester. The servicemen killed in the crash were Steven Skoda, 54, Christian Koch, 39, and Daniel Prial, 30. The helicopter was a UH-60 Black Hawk, and the medical helicopter took a nosedive while they were practicing recovery maneuvers “There was a press conference that the National Guard held, and it was deemed that the error was a procedural error.” In other words, it wasn’t a mechanical error. In-flight training missions, service members are tasked with putting the machine “in danger” to “imitate real life as much as possible,” said Anne Leavy-Prial. After they tried to maneuver the helicopter, it was too low and had too high of a speed to recover. As a result of this deadly crash, the National Guard has restricted this maneuver to simulation practice only. The mother of Daniel Prial has refused to let the legacy of her son perish. Anne Leavy-Prial wrote a book about courage, loss, and a mother’s love. In her book she talks about Daniel Prial; “He was sentimental, country-loving, he just loved the United States, loved his fellow people. Prial took his strong love of country to Afghanistan when he was deployed there for nine months in 2014”. After being in Afghanistan for nine months Daniel Prial took a liking to fly. “His passion was medevac rescue missions.” After he had died Anne Prial said that “she started to get so many letters and cards from people”, and wrote over 800 handwritten thank you letters. Anne Leavy Prial also stated that “…the devoted mother hopes readers are inspired by her son by the way he loved everybody and loved his country. He appreciated our country and didn’t take it for granted, but felt that he had to do his small part”.