Deputy Mark Tonkin, an eight year veteran of the Sheriff-Coroner Department, lost his life in a helicopter crash on Monday night, October 24, 1988, while assigned to DESERT RANGER, a multi-agency cooperative narcotic enforcement program in the state. Mark was one of eight victims aboard a California National Guard UH1H Huey Helicopter which went down and burned in mountainous terrain near El Centro, California.
Other members of the narcotic team on the ill-fated mission were two deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, one each from Riverside County and the Imperial County Sheriff's Departments, and three officers from the California National Guard. Operation DESERT RANGER has, in the past, involved personnel from the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Customs, Border Patrol, San Bernardino County Sheriff and San Diego County Sheriff.
Deputy Tonkin joined the department on August 21, 1981. He was initially assigned to the Main Jail upon completing basic training. He worked a short time as a court bailiff and then assigned to North Patrol. Deputy Tonkin was assigned to the Career Criminal Apprehension Team in January of 1988.
To see the 1988 Department Bulletin that reported his death click: tonkin.pdf (1.23 mb)
The Orange County Register reported his death this way:
8 officers killed in copter crash
Orange County deputy among group involved in a drug-fighting mission
October 25, 1988
Byline: James V. Grimaldi; Edward Humes
The Register
An Orange County Sheriff's deputy, three local National Guardsmen and four other law-enforcement officers were killed Monday night when an Army National Guard helicopter from Los Alamitos crashed during a drug-fighting mission near the Mexican border.
The UH-1 Huey transport Deputy Mark Steven Tonkin hit a power line while in low-level flight chasing a vehicle, crashed and burned about 9:30 p.m., said Phil Jordan, spokesman for the California National Guard.
The crash was in mountainous terrain near Ocotillo Wells, about 35 miles west of El Centro in Imperial County.
Killed were one deputy each from Orange, Imperial and Riverside counties and two deputies from Los Angeles County. The three-member California National Guard aircrew and their Vietnam-era chopper were from Company D, 140th Aviation Battalion, based at the Los Alamitos Armed Forces Reserve Center, Jordan said.
Two victims were identified this morning: Orange County Sheriff's Deputy Mark Steven Tonkin, 31, of Chino, who worked for seven years with the department and was assigned to the Career Criminal Apprehension Team; and Imperial County Sgt. Richard G. Romero, 39, a resident of El Centro and 14-year member of the Sheriff's office, Imperial County Sgt. Dan Ingle said.
The names of the six others aboard were withheld until their families could be notified.
Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates flew to El Centro immediately after learning of the crash, sheriff's spokesman Lt. Richard Olson said.
The cause of the crash is under investigation by members of the Army Safety Center at Ft. Rucker, Ala., and California National Guard safety officers, who were are on their way to the crash site.
According to a news release, the UH-1H Army helicopter was "on a training mission in support of a drug task force."
Ingle said the law-enforcement officers were involved in a task force Operation Border Ranger, a cooperative border drug-interdiction effort between local and federal authorities, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and the Border Patrol.
The one-week operation was begun as a joint project of the San Diego, San Bernardino, Imperial, Orange, Los Angeles and Riverside counties, which each sent five or six deputies to take part in border surveillance, said Phil Donahue, head of the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement office in San Diego. Donahue said his agency played a support role in the operation.
He said numerous National Guard aircraft were involved and that the Border Patrol also contributed surveillance equipment and manpower to help stop the flow of drugs in a "highly concentrated, one-week operation."
Operation Border Ranger was intended to be covert until the crash, a sheriff's spokeswoman said. The operation was canceled today.
The crash occurred not far from the intersection of old Highway 80 and Interstate 8 at the bottom of the San Diego-Imperial County line mountain springs grade.
Meanwhile in Orange County, the Board of Supervisors ordered that county flags be placed at half-mast to mourn the death of the deputy.