The US Army has identified the nine soldiers who were killed in a nighttime training accident on Wednesday evening, when two HH-60 Black Hawk helicopters crashed in a field near Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
An Army news release identified the soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division who were killed in the incident as 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; and Sgt. David Solinas Jr., 23.
“This is a time of great sadness for the 101st Airborne Division. The loss of these Soldiers will reverberate through our formations for years to come,” Maj. Gen. JP McGee, commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), said in a statement on Friday. “Now is the time for grieving and healing. The whole division and this community stand behind the families and friends of our fallen Soldiers.”
The medical evacuation helicopters were conducting a routine training mission when they crashed at approximately 10:00 pm local time in an open field across from a residential area. All nine of the service members aboard the two aircraft were killed in the accident.
Staff Sgt. Joshua Tverberg, spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division, told CNN on Thursday that there were four total helicopters involved in the training on Wednesday. One Black Hawk was refueling, according to Tverberg, and another was flying in front of the two that crashed, which were flying side-by-side.
It’s still unclear what caused the crash; a team from Fort Rucker, Alabama, is currently on-site and investigating the incident, the Army said Friday.
The nine soldiers who were killed came from all different backgrounds. Barnes, an aeromedical evacuation…
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