Updated at 3:06 p.m., Monday, December 4, 2006
Kane'ohe Bay Marine killed Sunday in helicopter crash
Associated Press
ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (AP) — The father of a Hawai'i-based Marine said his son was among four killed Sunday when a helicopter made an emergency landing in a lake in Anbar, Iraq.Maj. Trane McCloud, 39, was killed when a Sea Knight helicopter carrying 16 Marines went down, his father, Ron McCloud, told The Associated Press today.
Twelve passengers survived; a Marine was pulled from the water but attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful. The bodies of three missing Marines were found in a subsequent search, the military said.
Military officials said the helicopter had experienced mechanical problems and was not hit by gunfire. The names of the victims have not yet been released to the public.
"He was a fine young man, loved the Marines, and was the kind they (the Marines) look for," Ron McCloud told the Elizabethton Star. "He was a real patriot."
McCloud served almost 17 years with the Marines and began his tour in Iraq in September. Ron McCloud said his son has a wife and three children who live on O'ahu at the Kane'ohe Bay Marine Corps Base.
The Marines died in Anbar — a province the size of North Carolina that stretches west from Baghdad to the borders of Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia — where many of Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgent groups are based. A U.S. fighter jet crashed last week in a field in the region, killing an Air Force pilot.
