Missing Marine chopper crew 'accounted for'
Pentagon: Hostile fire unlikely in crash of Marine choppers

Saturday, February 18, 2006; Posted: 12:41 p.m. EST (17:41 GMT)

U.S. and Djibouti crews search the area Saturday, where two U.S. Marine Corps transport helicopters crashed.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The 10 crew members missing after the crash of two U.S. Marine Corps helicopters off the coast of the eastern African nation of Djibouti "have been accounted for," the U.S. military said Saturday.

"Next-of-kin notifications are still ongoing; therefore, no further information regarding the status or condition of the crew members will be released at this time," the military said in a statement.

Search and rescue efforts "have been curtailed," the military said, but the "recovery of pertinent information, equipment and wreckage for the accident investigation board will continue to determine the cause of the crash."

Pentagon officials said there was no indication that hostile fire played any role.

The two crew members who were rescued are in stable condition, the Pentagon said. One had knee surgery, and the other "suffered muscular and skeletal bruising, no fractures, and may have inhaled contaminated sea water."

At the time of the crash, the CH-53E helicopters were each carrying a crew of six while conducting a two-hour training mission in the Godoria Range area in northern Djibouti.

"The weather at the time of the mishap was reported to be partly cloudy, about 80 degrees, with light to variable winds and unlimited visibility," the military had said earlier.

The helicopters, nicknamed "Sea Stallions" because of their capability to lift heavy equipment, are part of the HMH 464 squadron based at Marine Corps Air Station New River in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

U.S. forces operate a military base and command center at Camp Lemonier, in Djibouti. The Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa is aimed at detecting and defeating terrorists in the Horn of Africa region.

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Hopefully LW and co. are alright. I find it rather disturbing that the most serious concern they had for one of the rescued passengers is that they "may have inhaled contaminated sea water". What is in the water over there, Drain-O?

It's because the rest of them are probably dead. Being "accounted for" is not the same as being alive. Fucking assholes.

Hope LittleWing's okay. He can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but he's like that Uncle that gets drunk at Thankgiving and runs around with a lampshade on his head. Drives you crazy, but you still love the guy.

LW, check in when you can and give us an update.

I saw this and had the same thoughts. I hope LW and his friends weren't involved....

Maybe they are trying to inform next of kin before releasing information to the public.

Hopefully we'll get an update from the guy soon

Anyone know his real name?

The article says that they are notifying next of kin, so that is probably a good assumption...

I just think it's bullshit that they beat around the bush with terms like "they are accounted for" when they know the people are dead. Just tell us the people died instead of blowing smoke up our asses.

From the BBC website.

Ten killed in US Djibouti crash

The US military has confirmed that 10 crew members died in a collision between two of their helicopters off the coast of Djibouti on Friday.
A spokesman for the US military in the Horn of Africa also confirmed that two of the 12-man crew were rescued.

The CH53 marine transport helicopters were based on Camp Lemonier, a French military base in Djibouti.

The cause of the crash is not yet known but is not believed to be hostile, a US defence spokesman said earlier.

Names withheld

The Djibouti facility serves as a headquarters for a US military operation aimed at stopping militant groups infiltrating the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea.

A search was initially launched for the 10 missing crew members, but was called off on Saturday.

The dead troops included US Marines and two Air Force airmen, according to a statement by the US-led Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa.

"Our deepest sympathy and heartfelt prayers go out to the family members, friends, loved ones and co-workers of our fallen brothers-and sisters-in-arms," said Maj Gen Timothy Ghormley, commanding general of the counter-terrorism force.

"We mourn their loss and honour their memory."

Relatives had been notified, but names of those killed were being withheld, according to the statement.

The two rescued crew members were said to be in a stable condition on Saturday after being flow to the US military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre in southern Germany

The cause of the crash is being investigated.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4729964.stm

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060220/ap_on_re_us/helicopter_crash

By STEVE HARTSOE, Associated Press Writer
4 minutes ago



JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - Ten U.S. service members died when a pair of Marine Corps helicopters from a unit based in North Carolina crashed off the coast of Africa, U.S. military officials confirmed Sunday.

The two CH-53E choppers, carrying a dozen crew and troops from a U.S. counterterrorism force, went down during a training flight Friday in the Gulf of Aden, near the northern coastal town of Ras Siyyan in Djibouti.

Two crew members who were rescued were taken in stable condition to the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

The aircraft and eight Marines were from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 464, based at Marine Corps Air Station New River. Two Air Force airmen killed were from bases in Washington state and Virginia.

"We were devastated," said Marine Corps 1st Lt. Paul Tremblay, who is based at Camp Lejeune, the huge post on the Atlantic Ocean that's next to the New River air station. "It hits us very hard as Marines when we lose anyone."

The Pentagon said the Marines killed in the crash were:

• 1st Lt. Brandon R. Dronet, 33, of Erath, La.

• Sgt. James F. Fordyce, 22, of Newtown Square, Pa.

• Lance Cpl. Samuel W. Large, Jr., 21, of Villa Rica, Ga.

• Sgt. Donnie Leo F. Levens, 25, of Long Beach, Miss.

• Cpl. Matthieu Marcellus, 31, of Gainesville, Fla.

• Sgt. Jonathan E. McColley, 23, of Gettysburg, Pa.

• Lance Cpl. Nicholas J. Sovie, 20, of Ogdensburg, N.Y.

• Capt. Bryan D. Willard, 33, of Hummelstown, Pa.

Also killed in the crash were Senior Airman Alecia S. Good, 23, of Broadview Heights, Ohio, of the 92nd Communications Squadron at Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash.; and Staff Sgt. Luis M. Melendez Sanchez, 33, of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, of the 1st Communications Squadron, Langley Air Force Base, Va.

"Our deepest sympathy and heartfelt prayers go out to the family members, friends, loved ones and co-workers of our fallen brothers- and sisters-in-arms," said Maj. Gen. Timothy Ghormley, commanding general of the counterterrorism force. "We mourn their loss and honor their memory."

John McColley of Gettysburg, Pa., said his son was less than two months away from being rotated out of Africa and it was difficult to wait for news after the first reports of the crash.

"That news affected every member of the contingent, 40 or 50 families," McColley said. "Every family's heart sank."

Margaret Levens, of Long Beach, Miss., said she was proud that her son, Donnie Levens, had a chance to do what he loved.

"He was there to serve his country and to keep his family and country safe," Margaret Levens said. "It was what he wanted to do. He was there for us ... in fact he had reenlisted for four (more) years."

The remains of the eight Marines and two airmen were sent back to the United States on Sunday, task force spokeswoman Maj. Susan Romano told The Associated Press by telephone from Djibouti.

One of the two crew members who were rescued was Marine pilot Susan Craig, 28, who called her parents, Pat and Lewis Sackett of Fall Creek, Wis.

"She's bruised and swollen, and her arms and legs got hurt, but no broken bones," Pat Sackett said.

She said her daughter was not sure what caused the crash.

Military officials were investigating why the aircraft when down in shallow water. They said there was no indication of hostile fire, and visibility was good with light wind.

The Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, set up in the former French colony in June 2002, is responsible for fighting terrorism in nine countries in the region: Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Somalia in Africa and Yemen on the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula.

The impoverished region is home to a sizable Muslim population. U.S. officials say it has been used by terrorists as a place to hide, recruit operatives and stage attacks.

The region has suffered four attacks either claimed by or attributed to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, including bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania; and the 2002 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen.

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Does anyone know where LW is from, or what his rank is?

Well I hope he posts soon, because I believe he's originally from New York state.

But not from that area.

LW is ok.

I'm not through de-right-wing-wackifying him yet.

I'm okay folks.

All outgoing traffic from base gets shut down when things like this happen, and then yesterday I couldn't get on. But I'm okay. I didn't know any of the guys either.

The base is pretty devistated though. I've been here a year now and I've never seen it like that. People runnin' all over the place, not everyone knowing what exactly had happened. The final toll was a lot less than what was originally going around. But I won't talk about that.

I was on standbye to be a part of the recovery mission, but it was too far to drive, and I would have been useless as a Somali translator up where it happened.

Glad to hear that you personally are okay. Stay safe.

glad to know you;re doing ok dude.

Glad you are ok man.

I have a couple questions for you, if you don't mind. First, why the hell have you been there so long, over a year you say? I've never heard of people being forward deployed for that long. Unless they are counting Djibouti as an permanent duty station like Okinawa or Germany.

Also, you say you are somalian translator? That is a pretty tough job to get in the marines, iirc. I went through screening after I passed the DLAB in boot camp to be a language intel specialist, or whatever they called it, but I already had an MOS they "needed" me for. Did you go to that year and a half school at the Defense Language place?