Marines Identify 4 Killed In Helicopter Crash Near Colorado River

PHOENIX, AZ.(AP) – Two U.S. Marine Corps pilots, a crew chief and a Navy corpsman were identified as those killed in the crash of a search-and-rescue helicopter near the Colorado River during a training mission.

The surviving passenger of the crash, 21-year-old Lance Cpl. Brian D. Stahlhut, was transferred from Yuma Regional Medical Center to a military medical facility at Naval Medical Center in San Diego on Saturday. Stahlhut was in fair condition. All five were crew members attached to Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma.

The four who died Friday were

35-year-old Maj. Cesar Y. Freitas, a pilot from Boulder, Colo. 33-year-old Capt. Bradley E. Walters, a pilot from Arlington, Texas 27-year-old Sgt. Charles L. Osgood, a crew chief from Phoenix 25-year-old Petty Officer 2nd Class Brendon O. Sandburg, a Navy corpsman from Stuart, Fla.

A memorial service for the four servicemen was scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday morning. The memorial services were planned at the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma’s chapel. The aircraft, one of four search-and-rescue helicopters assigned to the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, was last heard from late Thursday afternoon, Marine Sgt. Ryan O’Hare said.

The wreckage was discovered early Friday, and the cause of the crash was under investigation. The aircraft was flying alone on a routine training mission near the Army’s Yuma Proving Ground, a sprawling 1,300-square-mile military reservation along the Arizona-California border used to test combat systems and helicopters.

The bright red search-and-rescue Hueys are familiar sights in southwestern Arizona and southeastern California, where they fly daily in support of military operations and do civilian rescues, said Lance Cpl. Daniel Angel, the community and media relations chief for the Yuma base. They respond to civilian rescues within 100 miles of Yuma. The choppers assigned to Yuma average 20 to 40 rescues a year, helping injured or stranded hikers, motorists or boaters.

In some rescues, a Navy corpsman rappels down a rope to reach a victim in areas where the aircraft can’t land. Crews train daily for the rappelling operations, but it isn’t known if the aircraft was involved in that activity when it crashed. The Yuma facility is the home base for four Marine Harrier squadrons and an F-5 squadron used in an aggressor role for training pilots in air-to-air combat.

Besides the resident squadrons, the site is used by Marine aviators around the nation for training and is the world’s busiest Marine Corps air station. In 2005, a Marine Corps Harrier jet crashed into a neighborhood near the air base but the pilot had only minor injuries and no one on the ground was hurt. Hueys, first produced in 1956, are Vietnam War-era workhorses. New aircraft are scheduled to replace them beginning in 2008.

In a statement, base commander Col. Ben Hancock expressed sympathy for the families of the lost airmen. Their “devotion to duty, patriotism and selflessness are hallmarks of search and rescue crewmembers,” Hancock said. “They were outstanding members of this command and as a close-knit family we mourn their loss.”

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)