Officials joined friends and former colleagues of Kort M. Plantenberg on Thursday to dedicate the Avon post office being renamed in his honor.
Avon post office renamed to honor Guardsman killed in 2019 helicopter crash
Plantenberg was one of three Guardsmen who died in a crash during a routine maintenance flight in December 2019.
August 18, 2023 at 8:37PM
Plantenberg, 28, of Avon was one of three Minnesota National Guardsmen who died in a helicopter crash near St. Cloud in December 2019. The others were Charles P. Nord, 30, of Perham and James A. Rogers Jr., 28, of Winsted.
Following the crash, U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, as well as U.S. Reps. Tom Emmer and Michelle Fischbach, introduced companion bills to rename post offices in Avon, Perham and Winsted.
Klobuchar, Emmer and Fischbach spoke at the event Thursday that renamed the Avon postal facility as the W.O.C. Kort Miller Plantenberg Post Office.
Plantenberg graduated from Albany High School in 2009 and the University of Minnesota Duluth in 2013, and became a correctional officer with Stearns County Sheriff's Department. He joined the Army National Guard in 2016, where he served in Kuwait and then as a mechanic at the Army Aviation Support Facility in St. Cloud.
A summary of the investigation released in 2020 revealed multiple factors led to the crash. The first engine of the UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter failed and the second engine was in the idle setting, causing the helicopter to crash in a line of trees about 16 miles southwest of St. Cloud.
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