A new Army report confirms it was a mid-air crash that brought down two Army helicopters at Washington’s Joint Base Lewis-McChord a year ago. It happened during a night vision training exercise.
The Defense Department says three of four soldiers killed Sunday in Afghanistan were from Joint Base Lewis-McChord. A NATO spokesman said that Afghan police turned on the soldiers during an attack at a remote checkpoint. All three men were members of the 3rd Stryker Brigade stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
This week the Army announced that it will no longer use a special psychiatry unit to evaluate soldiers with PTSD at Madigan Army Medical Center in Lakewood. Thursday, Army leadership from Madigan met with reporters.
“Heartbreaking” and “Preventable.” That’s how the mother of an Army helicopter pilot describes the midair crash that killed her son and three others last December. It happened during a nighttime training exercise at Washington’s Joint Base Lewis-McChord. A report released this week finds that commanders knew about radar and radio limitations in the training area where the crash happened. But apparently those communication gaps went unresolved – despite other near misses.
