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Marine choppers
flying again
Helicopter operations in Okinawa
resumed yesterday after a crash
Friday halted flights
A Kaneohe Marine Base helicopter that crashed Friday into a university building on Okinawa was supposed to deploy to the U.S. war effort in the Middle East.
Marine Corps officials did not know yesterday if a replacement would come from any of the six remaining Kaneohe-based CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters in Okinawa, or from somewhere else.
In April, 100 Kaneohe Marines and seven Sea Stallions that are part of Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463 were sent to Okinawa on a scheduled seven-month deployment.
The Kaneohe aircraft and crew were to attached Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 265, which was preparing to be deployed to the Middle East next week. It was to be part of a composite squadron assigned to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is normally stationed in Okinawa.
There are already another 1,000 Kaneohe Marines from 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, which left Oahu July 2 to join the 31st MEU for seven months of training.
The 31st MEU is slated to replace the 22nd MEU, which has been in Afghanistan since February. That handover is supposed to take place within the next 30 days, according to officials in the 22nd MEU.
Helicopter flight operations, which had been suspended for two days on Okinawa after Friday's crash, were resumed yesterday, except for CH-53D Sea Stallions.
The three Kaneohe crew members are listed in stable condition at the U.S. Naval Hospital at Camp Lester in Okinawa. None of their names have been released.
There were no civilian injuries in Friday's crash, which occurred on the campus of Okinawa International University, about 330 yards from the fence line of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.
The Daily Yomiuri quoted Okinawa police yesterday as saying that the accident might have been caused by a tail rotor failure that made it impossible for the pilot to control the helicopter.
Okinawa police said the tail rotor and its vertical support fin became detached from the helicopter, falling onto the ground more than 1,000 feet from the main crash site.
The crash of the Kaneohe helicopter in Okinawa follows the crash of an Army UH-60 Black Hawk in Afghanistan Thursday that killed one Schofield Barracks soldier and injured three other soldiers and 11 Marines.
Sgt. Daniel Lee Galvan, a 30-year-old crew chief, was killed. Injured were pilot 1st. Lt. Christopher Marvin, 25, and Spc. Ronald Matthis III. The fourth soldier has not been identified.
There was to be a memorial service for Galvan in Kandahar today. Another one will be held later this week at Schofield Barracks' main chapel. Galvan was the third Tropic Lightning soldier to die in Afghanistan this year. The division has experienced six deaths in Iraq.
Marvin is being treated at military medical hospital in Germany for a broken leg and other injuries. Matthis suffered a bruised rib and a sprained ankle, his grandmother told a Florida newspaper.
The Black Hawk was flying in the mountainous Khost province near the Pakistani border when it experienced mechanical problems.
