By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
The news of George P. Perry’s death in the rough terrain above Kahuku came over the loudspeaker at St. Louis School yesterday. And the students were asked to say a prayer for one of their own.
 |
| Six soldiers died and 11 were injured in Monday night’s accident involving two helicopters that crashed during a training accident in the mountains above Kahuku.
Army photo via Associated Press |
Perry played linebacker for the Crusaders and in 1976 made second team All Interscholastic League of Honolulu. He graduated in 1977 from St. Louis, where one of his sons is an eighth-grader.
Perry was one of the pilots of the Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter that hit another Black Hawk during night training exercises Monday on O‘ahu’s North Shore.
All six of the soldiers on Perry’s Black Hawk died. All 11 soldiers in the other helicopter were injured.
Perry was a chief warrant officer 4, a pilot who loved to fly planes and helicopters. He was also the 2nd Battalion’s safety officer, "which makes this whole thing a little ironic," said his commander, Lt. Col. Paul Disney.
The six dead soldiers left behind reputations as good family men, friends, leaders:
Spc. Rafael Olvera-Rodriguez was just days away from being promoted to sergeant, the first big step in a young soldier’s life.
Maj. Robert L. Olson was well along on a bright Army career, a West Point graduate and battalion operations officer in charge of 412 artillery soldiers and 18 guns. Lt. Col. Wayne Detwiler offered Olson perhaps the highest compliment to a soldier: "He was a great American."
President Bush, speaking at Norfolk Naval Air Station in Virginia yesterday, called for a moment of silence to remember the six men who died and those who were injured in one of Hawai‘i’s worst military training disasters.
"Not clear' how choppers touched
The exercise involves more than 3,500 soldiers at the Army’s Kahuku training area about one mile mauka of the Kahuku Motocross Track.
"It’s not clear how the two copters came in contact," said Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman. "We’re not sure whether both were in the air at the time, but I don’t think so."
Seven of the injured soldiers were released from O‘ahu hospitals by yesterday. The other four were listed in stable condition at Tripler Army Medical Center.
A light rain was falling and the pilots were wearing night-vision goggles when 23 helicopters began taking off at 7:30 p.m. The Black Hawks were supporting the 2nd Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division (Light) in mock battle with the 3rd Brigade.
The doomed Black Hawk carried Maj. Olson’s humvee below its belly.
"They were trying to quickly insert soldiers onto a battlefield," said Maj. Nancy Makowski.
Ten minutes later, the two Black Hawks made contact with one another.
Lance Gruver, 13, who lives near the area, said he heard a loud metallic clanking just before the helicopters crashed.
To resident Chris Curtis, 30, "it sounded like a large cannon going off."
Curtis told his neighbor that the sound was merely part of the Army exercise. But 15 minutes later, police, fire and military teams started gathering.
"So we figured something crashed or went wrong," Curtis said.
The wreckage of the helicopters landed about 200 yards apart and had to be pried off some of the soldiers.
Aviation investigators from the Army Safety Center in Alabama’s Fort Rucker arrived in the Islands last night to try to determine what caused the helicopters to make contact. Another team — experts in pathology — is scheduled to arrive this morning from Washington, D.C., to help deal with the dead at Tripler Army Medical Center.
B
Spc. Bob D. MacDonald of Alta Loma, Calif., and Sgt. Thomas E. Barber of Champlin, Minn., were twenty-something family men with children. They were athletes who liked running and football.
Both were Black Hawk crew chiefs and did their jobs well, Lt. Col. Disney said.
"They were top-notch," he said.
 |
| Gregory I. Montgomery followed in the footsteps of his father.
Army photo via Associated Press |
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Gregory I. Montgomery of Arizona was an excellent swimmer who was in peak physical condition and worked with the Army’s water-survival program.
He was single but followed a family tradition: His father had been a career Army pilot, a warrant officer too.
"CW2 Montgomery wanted to be like his dad," Disney said. "He wanted to follow in his dad’s footsteps."
Spc. Olvera-Rodriguez of El Paso, Texas, showed leadership potential for someone only in his 20s, said Sgt. Maj. Gerald Dunn. "He had good organizational skills. But it was mostly how he carried himself as a person."
Olvera-Rodriguez just graduated from the Army’s primary leadership development course and would have been promoted to sergeant "any time now," Dunn said. "He was days away. For a young specialist, it’s the very first step into the non-commissioned corps. And it’s a very significant step."
Olvera-Rodriguez was selected as Maj. Olson’s driver. And it was a good match for the young soldier. Because Olson, a veteran of the Desert Shield campaign, showed leadership every day, said his commander and friend, Lt. Col. Detwiler.
Olson was 35, a native of Minnesota who was married to another Army major and had a son and daughter.
"He was a soldier, a professional," Detwiler said, "a fine family man, a teacher, a mentor."
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Perry may have been the best soldier in Lt. Col. Disney’s command.
Perry logged 3,000 flying hours and earn a reputation "as absolutely the best of the best," Disney said. Perry was a pilot who also carried the responsibility of safety officer, measuring the risks of operations and making sure everything was safe.
"He would tell you like it is," Disney said. "He always looked out for the soldier’s welfare. He was one of the most professional pilots and safety officers I’ve ever seen. Flying was his whole life."
But Perry also left plenty of room for his wife and two sons, Disney said.
He was promoted to CWO4 about eight months ago and easily could have made CWO5 eventually, the highest rating, Disney said.
"He was definitely driven and very confident as both a pilot and a safety officer," Disney said. "Until (Monday), we had a superlative safety record. That’s why this whole thing is just so ironic."
Advertiser staff writers Scott Ishikawa, Susan Roth and Rod Ohira contributed to this report.
[back to top] |
