The boots, rifles, helmets and patches of four soldiers from the 5th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment who died when a UH-60 Black Hawk crashed this week rest above their photos at Wednesday's memorial service. (Steve Liewer / S&S)
The boots, rifles, helmets and patches of four soldiers from the 5th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment who died when a UH-60 Black Hawk crashed this week rest above their photos at Wednesday's memorial service. (Steve Liewer / S&S)
Chief Warrant Officer 5 Bobby McNeal, right, of the 11th Aviation Regiment — an attack helicopter pilot since the Vietnam War — hugs Lt. Col. Pete Franks, commander of the Giebelstadt-based 5th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment, following the memorial service. (Steve Liewer / S&S)
Capt. Octavious Gibbons, commander of the 5th Battalion, 158 Aviation Regiment's Alpha Company, eulogizes a soldier from his command who was killed Tuesday in the Black Hawk copter crash. (Steve Liewer / S&S)
Col. William Wolf, left, of Task Force 11th Aviation hugs Maj. Chris Speer, Bravo Company commander from the 5th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment, following a memorial service Wednesday for four of the battalion’s soldiers who died this week in the crash of a UH-60 Black Hawk near Camp Udairi, Kuwait. Two of the men served in Speer’s Bravo Company, based in Aviano, Italy. (Steve Liewer / S&S)
(More about the four Black Hawk copter crash victims at the bottom of the story.)
CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait — Chief Warrant Officer 2 Tim Moehling should have been sitting in a camp chair puffing on his pipe. Spc. Rodrigo Gonzalez-Garza should have been cracking people up with his jokes. Chief Warrant Officer 2 J.D. Smith should have been telling rock-climbing stories. And Spc. Will Tracy should have been celebrating his 28th birthday.
Instead, the other soldiers of the 5th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment stood stiffly at attention inside a hangar Wednesday, blinking back tears as they remembered their fallen friends.
The four men all were killed barely 36 hours earlier, when a sandstorm engulfed their UH-60 Black Hawk about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday as they flew just above the desert floor. The helicopter slammed into the ground moments later.
“We don’t know how, or why, this tragic thing happened,” said Capt. Martin Kendrick, the battalion’s chaplain, during the service. “We can’t bring these soldiers back, but we can remember the happy times with them.”
Friends say Moehling and Gonzalez loved flying together. They were pilot and crew chief from the unit’s Company A in Giebelstadt, Germany. Someone was going to switch Gonzalez to another flight Monday night, but he insisted on sticking with his pilot.
Buddies describe Gonzalez — known to everyone in the unit as “Gonzo” — as a talkative joker who kept his tent mates laughing. A bundle of energy, he rarely sat still.
One of his closest friends, Spc. Eric Holmes of Modesto, Calif., said Gonzalez spent lots of time at his home. Gonzo pitched in with the cooking and did the dishes, and the two men would stay up late playing video games.
“He slept in the spare bedroom, which was the baby’s room. If the baby would cry during the night, he would just get up and take care of him,” Holmes said. “My wife loved him to death.”
Moehling devoted every spare moment to his wife and three children. He took them in the family minivan on marathon vacations across Europe.
In camp, he was perpetually laid-back. He preferred sitting in a sauna to physical training. Since arriving in Kuwait in early February, he had earned the nicknames “Puff Daddy” and “Mr. Howell” because he would sit outside his tent in a camp chair, his feet up, wearing a hat and smoking his aromatic pipe.
“He was great to fly with,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Paul Cahill, 34, another Company A pilot. “He was real relaxed all the time.”
Smith and Tracy were members of the 5-158 Aviation’s Company B, based at Aviano Air Base in Italy. Both had volunteered for duty in Kuwait, and both insisted on staying even after replacements had arrived for them from Germany.
“Both of these guys volunteered to be with you,” Company B commander Maj. Chris Speer said at the ceremony. “That speaks volumes about them.”
Tracy, in fact, had done six deployments in 3½ years with the 5-158 Aviation, extending with the unit last fall so he could move from Germany to Italy. He racked up more than 500 hours as a crew chief, an impressive number for such a short time. He was close to achieving his goal of making sergeant.
“He went out on every single mission,” said Capt. Michael Cushwa, 25, a Company C pilot. “He wanted to be there, where the action was.”
Smith found some of his action from mountain faces, where he honed his skills as a devoted rock climber. He kept himself in tip-top shape, even by Army standards.
Smith loved his wife and two daughters, and he loved flying. He was a fixed-wing pilot before joining the Army to fly Black Hawks, and had spent some 30 hours in a Boeing 767 flight simulator. He spoke fluent Italian and served as his unit’s translator.
Just before his final flight, Smith and Gonzalez played spades with Chief Warrant Officer 2 Sean Davis, 34, and another soldier.
“After the game, he had to go out and get his gear. He was flying,” Davis said. Nothing at all seemed amiss. Then he and his crewmates were off on their fateful flight.
Some 300 soldiers from their battalion turned out to hear the tributes. Lt. Gen. William Wallace, the V Corps commander, was among those paying respects.
After hearing the tributes, 1st Sgt. Phillip Webb read the ceremonial roll call, including the absent soldiers. A rifle team fired three volleys in their honor. A bugler played Taps. Senior officers and soldiers alike shared hugs of condolence with the 5-158 Aviation’s battalion and company commanders.
“We need to pack our shattered emotions,” the chaplain said, “and get on to the task ahead.”
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Timothy W. Moehling
