PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA – South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds on Friday asked that all flags in the state be flown at half staff next Monday in honor of the death of a Navy Pilot.

Navy Lieutenant Clinton Wermers, a Navy flight instructor, was aboard a T-34 Turbomentor training plane when it crashed on a landing approach to the New Orleans Lakefront Airport in New Orleans on January 23. Wermers, who was a Mount Vernon native, was attached to Training Squadron 6, Whiting Field Naval Air Station, Milton, Florida.

A funeral service for Lt. Wermers will be held next Monday at Holy Family Catholic Church in Mitchell, South Dakota.