U. S. Army Aircrew - Baghdad, Iraq: 20 January 2007

U.S. Department of Defense

Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 081-07
January 24, 2007

DoD Identifies Army Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the death of 12 soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died in Baghdad, Iraq, on January 20, 2007, when the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter they were in crashed.

Killed were:

Colonel Brian D. Allgood, 46, of Oklahoma, who was assigned to the 30th Medical Brigade, Europe Regional Medical Command, Heidelberg, Germany.

Staff Sergeant Darryl D. Booker, 37, of Midlothian, Virginia, who was assigned to the 29th Infantry Division, Virginia Army National Guard, Sandston, Virginia.

Sergeant First Class John G. Brown, 43, of Little Rock, Arkansas, who was assigned to the Arkansas Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 185th Aviation Regiment (Air Assault), 77th Aviation Brigade, Camp Robinson, Arkansas.

Lieuetnant Colonel David C. Canegata III, 50, of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, who was assigned to the Virgin Islands Army National Guard, Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands.

Command Sergeant Major Marilyn L. Gabbard, 46, of Polk City, Iowa, who was assigned to Joint Forces Headquarters, Iowa Army National Guard, Camp Dodge, Johnston, Iowa.

Command Sergeant Major Roger W. Haller, 49, of Davidsonville, Maryland, who was assigned to the 70th Regiment, Regional Training Institute – Maryland, Maryland Army National Guard, Reisterstown, Maryland.

Colonel Paul M. Kelly, 45, of Stafford, Virginia, who was assigned to the Joint Force Headquarters of the Virginia Army National Guard in Blackstone, Virginia.

Sergeant First Class Floyd E. Lake, 43, of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, who was assigned to the Virgin Islands Army National Guard, Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands.

Corporal Victor M. Langarica, 29, of Decatur, Georgia, who was assigned to the 86th Signal Battalion, Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

Captain Sean E. Lyerly, 31, of Pflugerville, Texas., who was assigned to the Texas Army National Guard’s 36th Combat Aviation Brigade, 36th Infantry Division, Austin, Texas.

Captain Michael V. Taylor, 40, of North Little Rock, Arkansas, who was assigned to the Arkansas Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 185th Aviation Regiment (Air Assault), 77th Aviation Brigade, Camp Robinson, Arkansas.

First Sergeant William T. Warren, 48, of North Little Rock, Arkansas, who was assigned to the Arkansas Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 185th Aviation Regiment (Air Assault), 77th Aviation Brigade, Camp Robinson, Arkansas.

The incident is under investigation.

Interment ceremony set for 12 killed in crash
4 October 2007

Twelve soldiers who were killed on January 20, 2007, when their UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Baghdad will be honored during a group interment at Arlington National Cemetery.

The ceremony will begin at 9 a.m. October 12, 2007.

The soldiers, who belonged to a number of active Army and Army National Guard units, are: Colonel Brian D. Allgood, 46, of Okla. Colonel Paul M. Kelly, 45, of Stafford, Virginia, Lieuetnant Colonel David C. Canegata III, 50, of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Captain Michael V. Taylor, 40, of North Little Rock, Arkansas, Captain Sean E. Lyerly, 31, of Pflugerville, Texas, Command Sergeant Major Marilyn L. Gabbard, 46, of Polk City, Iowa, Command Sergeant Major Roger W. Haller, 49, of Davidsonville, Maryland, First Sergeant William T. Warren, 48, of North Little Rock, Arkansas, Sergeant First Class Floyd E. Lake Sr., 43, of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Sergeant First Class Class John G. Brown, 43, of Little Rock, Arkansas, Staff Sergeant Darryl D. Booker, 37, of Midlothian, Virginia, and Corporal Victor M. Langarica, 29, of Decatur, Georgia.

After the ceremony, Lieutenant General Clyde Vaughn, director of the Army National Guard, will host a reception for all 12 families at the Army Guard’s Readiness Center in Arlington, Virginia.

ARLINGTON, Virginia, October 12, 2007 – Hundreds of soldiers, family members and friends gathered at Arlington National Cemetery today to honor 12 soldiers killed in a helicopter crash Iraq earlier this year.

The soldiers, 10 from the Army National Guard and two from the active Army, were killed northeast of Baghdad on Jan. 20 when their UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was shot down. Their combat deaths were the highest number of National Guard fatalities in a single incident since 2001.

They were Army Guard soldiers: Colonel Paul M. Kelly, of Virginia; Lieutenant Colonel Savid C. Canegata III, of the Virgin Islands; Captain Michael V. Taylor, of Arkansas; Captain Sean E. Lyerly, of Texas; Command Sergeant Major Marilyn L. Gabbard, of Iowa; Command Sergeant Major Roger W. Haller, of Maryland; First Sergeant William T. Warren, of Arkansas; Sergeant First Class Floyd E. Lake Sr., of the Virgin Islands; Sergeant First Class John G. Brown, of Arkansas; and Staff Sergeant Darryl D. Booker, of Virginia. The active-duty Army soldiers killed were Colonel Brian D. Allgood, of Oklahoma, and Corporal Victor M. Langarica, of Georgia.

Mourners gathered in a grassy area at the cemetery near a hillside, where other group interments have been held. Honors included a casket team, a firing party and a bugler who played “Taps.” A single casket contained remains of the 12 soldiers, but there were separate flags for each deceased soldier.

Honor guard members ceremoniously touched each flag to the casket before presenting them to the members of the 12 families.

Service leaders including Army Secretary Pete Geren, Vice Chief of Staff General Richard A. Cody, Lieutenant General Clyde Vaughn, Director of the Army National Guard, and several State Adjutants General stood silently near the families during the ceremony.

“I think it was the right thing to do,” Vaughn said. The country owes it to the families to inter these soldiers at Arlington, to let them know that the whole nation is behind them, he said.

Vaughn held a reception for the 12 families at the Army National Guard Readiness Center here following the ceremony.

“There is a healing piece that goes with this,” he said. “(There’s a) helpful healing between people who have the exact same issue, (who can) wrap their arms around and look at someone who’s going through precisely the same thing.”

GROUP BURIAL AT ARLINGTON

One Ambush in Iraq Leaves Hundreds United in Mourning
12 Soldiers Killed in January Attack
By Mark Berman
Courtesy of the Washington Post
Saturday, October 13, 2007

They were fathers and sons, pilots and a doctor. A woman who had made history in her home state and men with the nicknames “Big Daddy” and “the Senator.” They were 12 soldiers killed January 20, 2007, when their UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed near Baghdad.

The helicopter was ambushed and hit by small-arms fire while en route to Liberty Base in Baghdad, the National Guard said. The craft went into a spin, but the pilots managed to make a crash landing. But the helicopter was then hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, and all the passengers were killed.

Lieutenant General Clyde A. Vaughn, Director of the Army National Guard, said it was just coincidence that they were together on the flight. Two of the soldiers were catching a ride.

A group burial was held for the soldiers yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery. A horse-drawn caisson carried a single flag-draped silver coffin to the grave site, followed by more than a dozen black limousines, five buses and a line of cars that stretched along the cemetery’s Bradley Road. Several hundred mourners streamed across the cemetery’s Section 60, making it the largest funeral at Arlington in a long time, cemetery officials said.

A quartet of Black Hawk helicopters flew overhead to begin the service.

Only some of the remains from the ambush were identifiable, and those were buried in separate ceremonies at Arlington and elsewhere. Remains that could not be identified were interred in the silver coffin yesterday.

The service did not honor just the deceased, Vaughn said. It connected the families and friends of the people who were killed.

“The responsibility that you have for families and loved ones of those spouses that have been lost is everything,” Vaughn said yesterday at the Army National Guard Readiness Center in Arlington, where he hosted a reception for the mourners. “The part that I saw, that we can’t replicate, is the healing between people who had the exact same issue. It has a lot more impact than anyone else doing that.”

All but two of those killed were in the National Guard, making it the largest number of guardsmen killed in a combat mission since the Korean War, the National Guard reported. They hailed from eight states and the Virgin Islands and ranged in age from 29 to 50.

The two non-guardsmen killed were Army Colonel Brian D. Allgood and Corporal Victor M. Langarica. Allgood, 46, the top surgical officer for coalition forces in Iraq, was an orthopedic surgeon from Oklahoma. Langarica, 29, of Decatur, Georgia, was the youngest of those killed. He enlisted in the Army airborne forces shortly before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Colonel Paul Kelly grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and received his commission in 1982 through ROTC at the University of Dayton. He and his wife, Maria Kelly, have two children, Paul David and John Joseph. Kelly, of Stafford, was nicknamed “the Senator” for always shaking soldiers’ hands, regardless of rank, colleagues said. He died just shy of his 46th birthday.

Lieuenant Colonel David C. Canegata III, 50, of St. Croix, and Sergeant First Class Floyd E. Lake, 43, of St. Thomas, were the two Virgin Islands National Guardsmen killed.

Captain Michael V. Taylor, 40, of North Little Rock, Arkansas, joined the Air Force in 1986. In February, he was the third Arkansas National Guardsman buried in a week.

The two Arkansas soldiers buried earlier that week were Sergeant Major William T. Warren and Sergeant First Class John G. Brown, both commanded by Taylor in the 1st Battalion, 185th Aviation Regiment (Air Assault), 77th Aviation Brigade, based at Camp Robinson, Arkansas.

Warren, 48, who had served for three decades, received a posthumous promotion to his final rank. Brown, 43, of Little Rock, joined the Army in 1983 as an attack helicopter mechanic.

Captain Sean Edward Lyerly, 31, of Texas, attended Texas A&M University as an ROTC cadet and earned a degree in horticulture. He flew missions over New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Marilyn L. Gabbard’s 27-year military career began as a private in the Iowa Army National Guard. In April 2001, Gabbard, 46, became the Iowa National Guard’s first female Command Sergeant Major. She and her husband, retired Command Sergeant Major Edward Gabbard, had seven children and 11 grandchildren between them.

Command Sergeant Major Roger Wood Haller, 49, served in the military for more than 25 years. Haller, of Annapolis, was assigned to the 70th Regiment, Regional Training Institute-Maryland, Maryland National Guard, based in Reisterstown.

Staff Sergeant Darryl D. Booker, 37, of Midlothian, Virginia, had served all over the world since joining the Virginia Army National Guard in 1986. He was 6-foot-5 and nicknamed “Big Daddy.”

Later yesterday, another soldier was buried long after dying in Iraq. Army Second Lieutenant John Shaw Vaughan, 23, of Edwards, Colorado, was killed June 7, 2006, in Mosul, when he encountered small-arms fire during combat, the Defense Department reported.

He is the 389th military service member killed in Iraq to be buried at Arlington.

Vaughan was born in Vail, Colorado, and graduated from nearby Battle Mountain High School in 2001. He attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., where he was in the ROTC before graduating in 2005 and receiving his commission.

In August, his mother told the Vail Daily newspaper that her son, a dedicated soldier, belonged in Arlington Cemetery.

“He will be so honored there,” Sarah Vaughan said. “It’s just his place, and the family, generations later, can go visit, and he will be there in Arlington.”

Vaughan was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Wainwright, Alaska. He was one month into a six-month tour when he was killed.

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Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard

U. S. Army Aircrew – Baghdad, Iraq: 20 January 2007

U.S. Department of Defense

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