Latest US Army Helicopter Loss in Iraq
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Latest US Army Helicopter Loss in Iraq
Being a North Carolinian, and former Army Warrant Officer helicopter pilot, this article caught my attention. It also reminds me of the dedication so many of our young folks serving in hostile areas demonstrate on a daily basis.
My condolences to the family of the lost aviators.
Every time a helicopter went down in Iraq, the parents of Army chopper pilot Mitch Carver remembered him describing the danger of the job he carried out through two tours of duty.
"He told us when he went home that he was shot at every time he went up, and was hit once," said Judy Carver, the 31-year-old chief warrant officer's mother.
Judy and Kyle Carver said Army representatives visited their Leicester home to tell them late Friday that their son was killed that day when his OH-58 Kiowa Warrior reconnaissance helicopter crashed near Mosul. Lt. Gen. John Vines, the second highest ranking general in Iraq, said there were indications the helicopter was shot down. It was the second fatal helicopter crash in Iraq in less than a week and the third in three weeks.
The Pentagon had not announced the death of Carver and the chopper's second pilot as of Sunday.
Mitch Carver died doing what he loved best, his parents said. Flying had been in the Erwin High School graduate's blood since his childhood and he was a veteran of tours in Korea and Bosnia and the invasion of Iraq. He had logged more than 2,000 hours of flight time during nearly 11 years in the Army, his parents said.
The soldier didn't feel right being back in the United States while others in the close-knit group of Kiowa pilots kept fighting. He volunteered to return to Iraq to help his friends, Kyle Carver said. Mitch Carver believed strongly in the purpose of the war, his father said.
Carver's skills were badly needed in Iraq. The Army is flying its Kiowa Warrior reconnaissance helicopters at roughly four times their peacetime rate, according to figures provided by the aviation branch safety office of the Army Aviation Warfighting Center at Fort Rucker, Ala. Over the course of the war they have flown, on average, nearly 62 hours per month.
From the start of the war, a total of 23 helicopters have been involved in 20 fatal crashes, according to an Associated Press count. There were six crashes in 2003, seven in 2004 and five last year. January has been the deadliest month, with six crashes over the course of the war, followed by November and May, each with four.
Mitch Carver wanted to continue flying helicopters even after leaving the military, his father said, possibly for a law enforcement agency. The challenge of choppers attracted him.
My condolences to the family of the lost aviators.
Every time a helicopter went down in Iraq, the parents of Army chopper pilot Mitch Carver remembered him describing the danger of the job he carried out through two tours of duty.
"He told us when he went home that he was shot at every time he went up, and was hit once," said Judy Carver, the 31-year-old chief warrant officer's mother.
Judy and Kyle Carver said Army representatives visited their Leicester home to tell them late Friday that their son was killed that day when his OH-58 Kiowa Warrior reconnaissance helicopter crashed near Mosul. Lt. Gen. John Vines, the second highest ranking general in Iraq, said there were indications the helicopter was shot down. It was the second fatal helicopter crash in Iraq in less than a week and the third in three weeks.
The Pentagon had not announced the death of Carver and the chopper's second pilot as of Sunday.
Mitch Carver died doing what he loved best, his parents said. Flying had been in the Erwin High School graduate's blood since his childhood and he was a veteran of tours in Korea and Bosnia and the invasion of Iraq. He had logged more than 2,000 hours of flight time during nearly 11 years in the Army, his parents said.
The soldier didn't feel right being back in the United States while others in the close-knit group of Kiowa pilots kept fighting. He volunteered to return to Iraq to help his friends, Kyle Carver said. Mitch Carver believed strongly in the purpose of the war, his father said.
Carver's skills were badly needed in Iraq. The Army is flying its Kiowa Warrior reconnaissance helicopters at roughly four times their peacetime rate, according to figures provided by the aviation branch safety office of the Army Aviation Warfighting Center at Fort Rucker, Ala. Over the course of the war they have flown, on average, nearly 62 hours per month.
From the start of the war, a total of 23 helicopters have been involved in 20 fatal crashes, according to an Associated Press count. There were six crashes in 2003, seven in 2004 and five last year. January has been the deadliest month, with six crashes over the course of the war, followed by November and May, each with four.
Mitch Carver wanted to continue flying helicopters even after leaving the military, his father said, possibly for a law enforcement agency. The challenge of choppers attracted him.
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Re: Latest US Army Helicopter Loss in Iraq
SASless, do we know how the Kiowa was shot down? I have wondered whether the US could lean on their new East Bloc mates to supply some Hinds... in theatres where the % of locals with automatic small arms is pretty much 100% I'd like to be riding in a mobile bank vault...
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Re: Latest US Army Helicopter Loss in Iraq
BBC News implied the latest was hit and exploded in mid-air. I hope they've been quick to inform the families when information like that is getting around, true or not.
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Re: Latest US Army Helicopter Loss in Iraq
The exact cause of Friday's Kiowa loss has not yet been reported, but small arms fire is suspected. More disturbing is the announcement from BG Sinclair that insurgents are now rigging-up a form of Bouncing Betty which targets helicopters. The locals are reportedly placing these 'aerial IEDs' along known flight paths, with the devices -- based on RF prox fuzes from old Iraqi AA shells -- jumping 50 ft prior to detonation.
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