The nine troops who perished after two HH-60 Black Hawk helicopters crashed in a field near Fort Campbell, Kentucky, on Wednesday night during a training mishap have been named by the US Army.
Warrant Officer 1 Jeffrey Barnes, 33; Cpl. Emilie Marie Eve Bolanos, 23; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Zachary Esparza, 36; Sgt. Isaacjohn Gayo, 27; Staff Sgt. Joshua Gore, 25; Warrant Officer 1 Aaron Healy, 32; Staff Sgt. Taylor Mitchell, 30; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Rusten Smith, 32; Sgt. David Solinas Jr., 23; and Sgt.
The 101st Airborne Division is in mourning at this time. Maj. Gen. JP McGee, commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), stated on Friday 31 March, “The loss of these Soldiers will echo through our formations for years to come.” The moment for sorrow and recovery has come. Families and relatives of our fallen Troops have the support of the whole division and our community.
The medical evacuation helicopters were on a regular training operation when they went down in a field near some homes at around 10:00 p.m. local time. Nine servicemen were killed in the crash of two planes.
101st Airborne Division spokesperson Staff Sgt. Joshua Tverberg told CNN that four helicopters were used in training that day. Tverberg claims that one Black Hawk was landing for refueling and a second Black Hawk was flying in front of the two that crashed.
The Army reported on Friday that investigators from Fort Rucker, Alabama, were already on the scene trying to determine what caused the crash.
The nine dead troops represented a wide range of ethnicities. According to service records released by the Army, Barnes enlisted in the Army as an aeromedical evacuation pilot in Florida in 2010. He later deployed to Afghanistan with the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade.
A native of the Philippines, Bolanos enlisted in Texas in 2019 to serve for nine months in Germany as part of Atlantic Resolve in 2020 as a UH-60 helicopter repairer and aircrew member. Esparza, a Texan by birth, enlisted in the military from Missouri in 2010 and has worked with the brigade as an instructor pilot since October 2021.
Gayo, who was also born in the Philippines, enlisted in the United States Army in the Golden State in 2019. Gore enlisted in the Army in 2015 and by May of 2022 had become the brigade’s flight paramedic. After enlisting in the Army in 2010, Healy began serving as an Aeromedical Evacuation Pilot with the unit in 2022. Mitchell enlisted in 2014 and was a flight paramedic with the company when he was medically discharged.
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Smith enlisted in the Army in 2012 and has since served as an instructor pilot in the brigade, as well as deploying twice to Afghanistan and spending nine months on a tour in Germany in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve. Solinas enlisted in the military in 2018 as a flight paramedic.
This Wednesday’s catastrophe was the deadliest aviation training mishap since a Black Hawk crashed off the coast of Florida in 2015, killing 11 service members.
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