TV cameraman killed in crash was 'consummate pro'
By The Associated Press
09.13.02
LOS ANGELES — Television cameraman Larry Greene, killed in a U.S. Navy helicopter crash in the Middle East on Sept. 6, was remembered as a bold and imaginative award-winning photographer.
Greene, 50, a 24-year veteran with KCBS Channel 2 in Los Angeles, died and four sailors were injured when a SH-60B helicopter crashed into the North Arabian Gulf.
Ross Crystal, a reporter for Los Angeles radio news station KFWB, attended the University of Miami with Greene. He was an innovator in his field and a "wonderful, wonderful guy," Crystal said.
"Larry was gonna try anything. He was gonna push the envelope, he was gonna break the barriers," said Crystal. "And that's why it doesn't surprise me that he's the guy that Channel 2 sent there."
But Greene was not a daredevil, KFWB reporter Pete Demetriou said.
"He seemed to have a sense of situational awareness about himself and what was going on, looking out for what was happening around him and make sure it wouldn't harm him or his reporter.
"At the same time, he knew that he would get the shot — the key shot that would make the story," Demetriou said.
In January, Greene was part of a KCBS team honored with a prestigious duPont-Columbia University award for a report on the lead-paint hazard in Southern California schools.
Greene, who lived in Agoura Hills in northern Los Angeles County, also was an Emmy Award winner, KCBS said.
Former KCBS anchor Larry Carroll, now at KFWB, said Greene would be missed by Los Angeles news professionals.
He was "an energetic and creative photojournalist ... the likes of which I have rarely worked with in over 30 years of television news," Carroll said.
Don Corsini, KCBS-TV president and general manager, called Greene "a consummate pro who loved taking on the tough assignments" and said colleagues' thoughts and prayers were with Greene's wife and two sons.
The Navy helicopter was attached to the cruiser USS Mobile Bay and crashed while on "normal maritime interdiction operations," Cmdr. Jeff Alderson of the Bahrain-based U.S. 5th Fleet said. The ships of the 5th Fleet take part in an operation to enforce U.N. sanctions on Iraq, stopping freighters suspected of illegally carrying Iraqi oil.
The aircraft was hovering over a Syrian-flagged vessel to observe a health inspection boarding when the rotor blade struck the ship's mast, an official said.
The sailors' injuries were not serious, Alderson said.