Nearly 41 months after U.S. Marine Kelly Keith was killed in a training accident in Arizona, the Cheraw native is still being remembered in ceremonies across the nation and also on the World Wide Web.

Keith and 18 fellow Marines died April 8, 2000, when a MV-22 Osprey aircraft they were flying in crashed into the desert.

A Web site honoring the Osprey crew has been set up by a Californian who is a mother of a Marine. She created the site after learning of the sacrifice that Keith and the others had made for their country. The site is www.semperfiheart.homestead.com/kellykeith.

An Osprey Memorial Foundation has also been established to honor Keith and his crew. The money donated will provide funding for a memorial to be built in Quantico for the eight crew members who were stationed there. Any extra money raised through the foundation will go toward paying for the education of the children who lost parents in two Osprey crashes in 2000.

"We just returned from a ceremony in Washington (on Aug. 13) where they took a moment to remember the crew of the Osprey," Keith's mom, Donna Harter, said, "and they also have an annual rally in Arizona in April and an Osprey Family Reunion in Quantico, Va., every fall. It's just comforting to know that these guys sacrifices have not been forgotten."

For more of this story see the Sept. 4, 2003 edition of the Chronicle or Advertiser.