page_title: Manuel Rivera Jr.
section_title: Operation Desert Storm
hierarchical_section_title: Manuel Rivera Jr. / Operation Desert Storm
caption_attribution_description: A right front view of a Marine Corps TAV-8B Harrier vertical take off landing (VSTOL) trainer aircraft being serviced on the tarmac. Location: MCDILL AIR FORCE BASE, FLORIDA (FL) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (USA)
context_page_description: Captain Manuel Rivera Jr. was the first serviceman of Puerto Rican descent to die in Operation Desert Shield during the Persian Gulf War.
context_section_description: Rivera was eventually promoted to the rank of Captain, and serving as personnel officer, intelligence officer and logistics officer flew in many support missions. He had ongoing plans to apply for admission to NASA as an astronaut candidate. As a USMC pilot, he was assigned to VMA-331, with service in that squadron including deployment to MCAS Iwakuni in June 1989, and upon outbreak of Operation Desert Shield, service aboard the USS Nassau.
  On January 22, 1991, Capt. Manuel Rivera died while conducting a training mission over the Persian Gulf when his AV-8B Harrier smashed into the Omani coastline while approaching the deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Nassau (LHA-4) for a landing. The real cause of the crash was not settled. Investigators believed condensation on the AV-8B's canopy could have interfered with the pilot's vision, or maybe that he just became disorientated by the horizon
  Capt. Manuel Rivera is buried in Section 14, Site 966 of the Calverton National Cemetery, a United States National Cemetery in the Town of Riverhead in Suffolk County on eastern Long Island in New York.
caption: TAV-8B Harrier - Type of aircraft flown by Capt. Rivera
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