The Black-Hawk pilot in this report is a bud of my older son, I coached both of them in little league some years back.
As luck would have it, his team lived>>
Gulf crash hits home for family
J'burg soldier loses friends in storm
By KRISTEN ZAMBO
The Northwest Herald
JOHNSBURG – Johnsburg native Steve Husted did not know that four of his friends were killed in a nighttime training mission in Kuwait until his helicopter landed.
Husted, 27, is stationed in Kuwait to prepare for a possible war with Iraq.
He was piloting a Black Hawk helicopter early Feb. 25 when he and the other helicopter in the exercise were en veloped in a sandstorm.
Husted made it back to base. The other Black Hawk helicopter crashed.
"He said, 'Mom, you probably heard about the helicopter crash. We were flying at night. He was one helicopter ahead,' " Husted's mother, Betsy, said from her Johnsburg home.
Husted, an Army chief warrant officer, was deployed Feb. 8 to the Middle East from his base in Heidel berg, Germany, Betsy Husted said.
He called his mother from Kuwait at 7:50 a.m. to tell her that he was safe. The crash occurred at about 1 a.m. Kuwait time.
That 10-minute telephone call is the only time the Husteds have heard from their son since he was deployed, they said.
According to a statement released by the Army, a dust storm swept through northern Kuwait on Feb. 25, the third such storm in three weeks. The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, used as a medevac chopper and for troop transport, crash ed near Camp New Jersey, about 31 miles northwest of Kuwait City.
Army Spc. Rodrigo Gon zalez-Garza, 26, of Texas; Chief Warrant Officer Timothy W. Moehlling, 35, of Florida; Chief Warrant Officer John D. Smith, 32, of Nevada; and Spc. William J. Tracy, 27, of New Hampshire, died in the crash.
Husted's helicopter, and the one that crashed, were from the Heidelberg, Ger many-based V Corps.
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Army public relations officials with V Corps could not be reached for comment.
The four men who died shared Husted's tent.
"I felt bad because he said the tent's kind of empty right now," Betsy Husted said. "This is his first experience losing people he knew."
She said she heard about the crash before she went to bed the night before but did not think that her son would be involved.
"When he called me the next morning and said, 'That was my company. ... I was in front of them. ... They were my tentmates,' it was horrible," Betsy Husted said. "It was a bad day. That's just a little too close for comfort."
Steve's father, Rick, was in Japan when he heard that four Americans were killed in a helicopter crash. He said he did not learn until later that his son was safe.
"What was freaking me out was being on the other side of the world and not knowing if it was him," said Rick Husted, a pilot with United Airlines. "It's worse than I thought it would be."
Steve Husted graduated in 1993 from Johnsburg High School and in 1997 from Western Illinois University, where he earned a degree in criminal justice administration. He joined the Army in February 1998, signing a seven-year contract.
Rick Husted said his son's love of flying started as a child. The only reason Steve, the middle of three children, went into the Army was to fly helicopters, his father said.
"In 1991, when the (Persian) Gulf War was going on, I thought it was interesting," Rick Husted said. "Now, my emotions are tied up."
The Husteds on Thursday canceled their annual trip to Florida in case the United States goes to war with Iraq. Although their son landed safely that night, they said they want to stay at home in case there is another crash.
"This war could happen real quick," Betsy Husted said. "I don't want to be on the road where nobody can get ahold of me."
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