25th ID loses chopper
in Afghanistan

The 25th Infantry Division lost another UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter in Afghanistan this week.

Maj. Stacy Bathrick, 25th Division spokeswoman in Bagram, said the Black Hawk was one of 30 the Schofield Barracks soldiers took with them to Afghanistan in March.

In Kabul, Lt. Col. Susan Mesiner, another Army spokeswoman, said the "Black Hawk helicopter made a hard landing north of Deh Rawod" Monday morning.

"The helicopter sustained moderate damage in this nonhostile incident," she added. "There were no injuries."

She rejected claims by Taliban spokesman Mullah Hakim Latifi that ousted Islamic militia shot the helicopter down with a rocket. The crash site was described as 250 miles southwest of Kabul where Taliban-led militants have been active.

This was the second helicopter accident in Afghanistan within the past month.

Helicopter crew chief Sgt. Daniel Lee Galvan, of Moore, Okla., was killed Aug. 12 when the UH-60 Black Hawk he was in crashed in the Afghan mountains along the border with Pakistan. Also injured in the crash was one of its pilots -- 1st Lt. Christopher Marvin -- and two other members from the 2nd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment. Nine of 11 Marines on board were also injured in the crash.

Galvan was the fourth soldier with island ties to die in a helicopter crash in Iraq or Afghanistan.