The name of a U.S. Coast Guard Reserve pilot killed 40 years ago has finally been added to a memorial to fallen aviators.

Coast Guard officials and family members gathered Thursday at the Aviation Memorial at Air Station Elizabeth City to unveil the name of Lt. Cmdr. Jimmie V. Phillips, who died April 4, 1966, after the Navy SH-34J "Sea Horse" helicopter he was flying, crashed.

The granite Aviation Memorial bears a list of names of Coast Guard pilots and crew members who perished in aviation accidents. Phillips' memorial entry reads, "4 April 1966, SH-34J 143918, LCDR J.V. Phillips."

Representing Phillips' family at the ceremony were his widow, Eunice Conger, and his daughter, Jeanne Marie Bland, as well as other relatives and friends.

Vice Adm. Vivien Crea, the vice commandant of the Coast Guard, also attended the ceremony.

Cmdr. Drew Pearson, the Support Center's executive officer, presided over the ceremony. Pearson said Phillips' name was not added to the memorial until recently because officials had no record of his death

when the memorial opened in 2000.

Phillips' records were unavailable because he was assigned to the Navy, and not the Coast Guard, the day of the crash, Pearson said.

"Due to the lack of records documenting his loss while he served at a Navy reserve squadron, his name was not originally inscribed when the monument was established," Pearson said during the ceremony.

Phillips, who lived in Texas, was assigned to a Navy squadron in Dallas and was performing his annual two-week drill when he was killed. His crew, and another Navy crew, were flying two helicopters to Naval Air Station Los Alamitos, in California, where the squadron was scheduled to conduct its annual training.

Phillips, a copilot of one of the helicopters, and two other crew members were killed when it crashed into the side of a mountain in California before reaching Los Alamitos, Coast Guard officials said.

An investigation indicated that a malfunctioning rotor on Phillips' helicopter caused the crash, Pearson said.