Families of some of the 10 Schofield Barracks soldiers killed in Wednesday's Black Hawk helicopter crash in northern Iraq were told the helicopter's tail rotor suffered a malfunction that caused it to crash.

CBS News reported that almost 800 yards into the flight, a tail rotor malfunctioned on the Black Hawk. The pilot called it in, but before he could react, the helicopter went into an uncontrollable spin and crashed in rough terrain, according to a report from CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan.

News of the likely cause came as Schofield attempted to cope with the loss and understand how it could have happened.

Department of Defense officials told the family of Spc. Ricky Bell, the Black Hawk's gunner, that "They were on an insurgent mission and that the tail rotor had a mechanical failure and caused the tail spin," said Bell's aunt, Glenda Overbey, who lives in Missouri.

The family of Army medic Josh Harmon was "basically told it was a mechanical failure while on a training mission that involved a problem with the rear rotor," said Lt. Tim Serazin, who works in the Willoughby Hills, Ohio, fire department with Harmon's father, Richard, the department's fire chief.

Patrick and Patty McLead were told their son, Sgt. Garrett McLead, died after "a mechanical problem of some sort," said Tim Jayroe, a family friend and police chief in Rockport, Texas. "They said he died as a result of the crash. That was about it."

ALL 14 KILLED

All 14 onboard the aircraft were killed in the crash early Wednesday in Multaka, just west of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, following a night combat mission and as two of the choppers lifted off carrying troops.

The four-member crew was from Fort Lewis, Wash., and all 10 passengers were from Schofield's 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry "Cacti," 3rd Brigade Combat Team.

It was the greatest loss of life for the 25th Infantry Division since the Vietnam War and the worst helicopter crash in Iraq since a CH-53 Super Stallion went down in western Iraq on Jan. 26, 2005.

In that 2005 crash, Hawai'i also paid a heavy price: Of 31 killed, 26 Marines and a sailor were from Kane'ohe Bay.

A team of experts from Fort Rucker, Ala. was en route to investigate the crash and determine its exact cause, said Lt. Col. Michael Donnelly, a spokesman for Task Force Lightning in northern Iraq.

Donnelly did say weather was not a factor and there was no enemy fire.

Paul Jackson, a spokesman for Black Hawk maker Sikorsky Aircraft, yesterday referred questions about the reliability of the helicopters to the Army's Combat Readiness Center, but said "Sikorsky helicopters have the best safety track record in the U.S. military's helicopter inventory."

The Combat Readiness Center could not be reached for comment late yesterday.

Donnelly yesterday said all the next-of-kin had been notified "and we are in the process of getting through this difficult time."

"This crash is a tragic event," Donnelly said, "and we are in the process now of consoling, praying and being there for the families of those affected by this tremendous loss to the Tropic Lightning team in Hawai'i, and the families and friends of those Fort Lewis-based soldiers who were the crew members."

At Schofield Barracks yesterday, two wives of soldiers deployed to Iraq, a chaplain and the rear detachment commander spoke of the loss and difficulty coping with it.

"We're reminded of the tremendous sacrifice of our young men and women, America's sons and daughters, in their service to the nation," said Col. Tim Ryan, the rear detachment commander. "And when we magnify that loss by 10, it just has a rippling and chilling effect across our community."

Although the 25th Division now has lost 39 soldiers over the past year on a deployment by more than 7,000 Schofield soldiers to northern Iraq, Ryan said the post had gone the last couple of months without a combat fatality.

At the same time, families back in Hawai'i were preparing reunions and parties for those soldiers — the bulk of whom will return home next month and in October — when Wednesday's tragedy struck.

"You become a little comfortable, and you begin to look forward to those reunions and see light at the end of the tunnel," Ryan said.

SPOUSE SUPPORT

Jennifer James, 33, whose husband, Staff Sgt. Michael James, is with the company that suffered the loss in the crash, said she never knows how a spouse is going to react to the news of a death.

James is a family readiness group leader and helps to provide part of the wide range of support to spouses that the Army has ready when a death occurs.

"You always offer your condolences, that's a given. But sometimes you don't know how that person is going to react (and) whether they are going to be resentful because you still have a soldier over there," she said. "So you have to be very cautious. Take your lead from the person who is affected by this, hug them, pray for them."

Nichole DeKok, a family readiness group leader with the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry "Wolf-hounds," said she started getting e-mail from Army wives Wednesday morning Hawai'i time after "Good Morning America" had news of the helicopter crash.

DeKok, 31, whose husband, Spc. Dar DeKok, also is in Iraq, said when news comes of a loss like the helicopter crash, "My heart sinks. You always take that gasp of air and just pray that it's not your unit. I know that sounds so selfish, but everybody feels the same way."

Army officials yesterday declined to say how many spouses of the soldiers who died are on the island.

Maj. David Shoffner, a chaplain, said the normal procedure in Iraq is to partner with medical and behavioral health officials and do a "critical events stress debriefing" with soldiers who may be affected by the loss of fellow service members.

Individual counseling is conducted for soldiers who are more hard-hit.

"I wish it wasn't so, but it is the truth — the nature of our job is we have to get up the next morning and continue the mission," Shoffner said.

Although he did not make any of the family notifications for Wednesday's helicopter crash, Shoffner said he has notified more spouses of the death of a soldier than he can remember, "and it's one of the hardest things that we do."

Those notifications always come at home, with no advance notice, and usually with a knock on the door by a chaplain and officer in Class A uniforms.

"As you can imagine, to walk to a door, you know that everything is about to change," Shoffner said.

One of the things he learned as a young chaplain was that there really are no magic words to remove the pain.

"What we try to do is just be there, to comfort them, to share with them, to pray with them and stand alongside them," he said.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com and Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.