Story Published:
Dec 21, 2006 at 10:48 PM PST
Story Updated:
Dec 23, 2006 at 6:03 PM PST
By
KOMO Staff
SEATTLE (AP) - Fort Lewis has identified the soldiers killed when a Black Hawk crashed near Enumclaw.
They are 25-year-old Sergeant Thomas L. Clarkston, 32-year-old Chief Warrant Officer Patrick J. Paige and 33-year-old Chief Warrant Officer James E. Whitehead.
All were members of the 4th Squadron, 6th Air Cavalry Regiment, which has been at Fort Lewis for about a year.
Clarkston was the crew chief of the Black Hawk, overseeing navigation and other duties. He began service in May 2002 and was stationed at Fort Lewis in July 2005.
His survivors include his wife, Teffiny, and a 14-month old son.
Paige was an Army aviator from Alabama. He had been on active duty since November 1995, Fort Lewis officials said.
Whitehead was also an aviator and native of Hawaii. He began active duty in August 1992.
Both Paige and Whitehead arrived at Fort Lewis in August 2005. Their hometowns were not immediately available
Army officials said the soldiers were scheduled to go to Iraq next year.
Part of a rotor and the smell of jet fuel led searchers to the scattered wreckage of the helicopter.
The last of the three crewmembers was found Friday, a day after the UH-60 Black Hawk medium utility helicopter crashed during a scheduled night training mission, the Army said.
"It was in the area where the other bodies were found as well," Lt. Col. Dan Williams, a spokesman from the Army post south of Tacoma, told a news conference Friday morning.
The remains will be removed and will undergo an autopsy, he said.
Investigators from the Army's Combat Readiness Center at Fort Rucker, Ala., were called in to try to find what caused the crash.
"It will be a lengthy process, but we aren't going to put a time limit on safety," Williams said.
King County sheriff's deputies received a report about 8:20 p.m. Thursday that residents outside of Enumclaw had heard what they believed was an aircraft crash, said Deputy Rodney Chinnick.
"People living in the area heard it go down," he said.
The department immediately checked with helicopter operators, such as the medical airlift service and the Army. The Army confirmed it had an aircraft that hadn't returned, he said.
The densely wooded terrain, combined with darkness, slowed search efforts and made it difficult to spot any wreckage from the air, Chinnick said.
"It's the kind of remote site that's hard to get to," Kuhns said.
Sheriff's deputies and civilians found the crash site about 10 p.m. on the south side of 1,835-foot Mount Peak near the King County Fairgrounds, about 45 miles southeast of Seattle and 30 miles east of Fort Lewis, Chinnick said.
The crash site was located after a deputy who is also a pilot for the county's helicopter smelled fuel and found a piece of a helicopter rotor during the ground search, Chinnick said.
Two crew members were confirmed dead at the scene, he said.
About 20 deputies and dozens of civilian search and rescue volunteers joined in the effort to find the third crew member.
The Army was in command of the effort and the sheriff's office was providing support.
Officials warned that the site was off-limits to anyone except investigators, apparently after personnel reported that people were attempting to enter the crash site.
The Army began using UH-60 Black Hawks in 1979 to provide air assault, medical evacuations, and special operations support for combat operations.
In August, a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Iraq's Anbar province, killing two and injuring four.