A soldier from Alabama is one of nine service members who were killed after two helicopters with the 101st Airborne Division crashed in southwestern Kentucky.
30-year-old Staff Sgt. Taylor Mitchell of Mountain Brook is among the soldiers who died in a helicopter accident near Fort Campbell last Wednesday evening while participating in a planned training exercise.
The two HH-60 Black Hawk helicopters crashed around Trigg County near the Tennessee border, officials at nearby Fort Campbell said on Twitter. They were taking part “in a routine training mission when the incident occurred,” the base said in a statement on Facebook.
The name, age, and home of record for each of the nine soldiers were listed in a post on the Facebook page of U.S. Army Fort Campbell:
• Warrant Officer 1 Jeffery Barnes, 33, of Milton, Florida
• Cpl. Emilie Marie Eve Bolanos, 23, of Austin, Texas
• Chief Warrant Officer 2 Zachary Esparza, 36, of Jackson, Missouri
• Sgt. Isaacjohn Gayo, 27, of Los Angeles, California
• Staff Sgt. Joshua C. Gore, 25, of Morehead City, North Carolina
• Warrant Officer 1 Aaron Healy, 32, of Cape Coral, Florida
• Staff Sgt. Taylor Mitchell, 30, of Mountain Brook, Alabama
• Chief Warrant Officer 2 Rusten Smith, 32, of Rolla, Missouri
• Sgt. David Solinas Jr, 23, of Oradell, New Jersey
“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,” said Maj. Gen. JP McGee, commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and Fort Campbell. “Now is the time for grieving and healing. The whole division and this community stand behind the families and friends of our fallen Soldiers.”
An Army aviation safety team from Fort Rucker, Ala. is on site and currently conducting a thorough investigation into the accident.
The crash comes less than two months after two Tennessee National Guardsmen were killed when their UH-60 Black Hawk crashed during a training flight in Alabama, reports CNN.