COLUMBIA, S.C. — This Memorial Day weekend, pilots, veterans, and the Columbia community gathered at the Hamilton Owens Airport to support the Guns Garin Foundation.
The event featured fly-ins of war airplanes and raised money for the organization.
Rick “Guns” Garin was an F-16 pilot for the South Carolina Air National Guard who died unexpectedly in 2020.
“His call-sign that was given to him in the unit was GUNS,” explained his dad, Alan Garin.
Guns died suddenly due to a medical complication, leaving behind his wife, young daughters, and loved ones.
Alan told News19 that his family took their loss and turned it into a gain for others.
“People that he worked with, that respected him and he flew with, set up this foundation in his honor to help military families in the local area that are in need, that have unfortunate circumstances like we had, or some other tragedy in their life,” Alan explained.
Fellow combat pilot and friend Joseph Atherton is one of those people Alan was referring to. Atherton told News19 that the mission of the Guns Garin Foundation is to help veterans in need and future pilots learn how to fly.
“We’ve given 11 scholarships to 11 kids that want to be future pilots,” Atherton shared.
He added that they’ve helped more than 10 military families in the year and a half that they’ve been up and running.
Alan said that their family received so much support when Guns died, so now they want to be that support for others. “We understand that things happen to people and they need help, and we felt that in my son's honor we would raise money, we would try to pay it back,” Alan said.
According to the foundation, 95% of funds raised go back to families in need and scholarships for future pilots. The next event listed on the foundation's website is a golf tournament in November.