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2 Schofield helicopter
victims are ID’d

The Pentagon has identified two Schofield Barracks soldiers killed last Wednesday in a chopper crash in Afghanistan.

One of the soldiers was identified as Master Sgt. Edwin A. Matoscolon, 42, of Puerto Rico.

The other soldier, Sgt. Maj. Barbaralien Banks, 41, of Harvey, La., is officially listed as missing. Her remains are believed to be among two sets of remains sent to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for identification.

Both soldiers were members of the 25th Division's Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, Division Artillery.

They were among the 18 people who were passengers on the CH-47 Chinook helicopter when it crashed near Ghazni, 80 miles south of the capital, Kabul. The incident was the deadliest for Americans in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

Their deaths mean that 15 Schofield Barracks soldiers have died in Afghanistan since the unit deployed there last April.

Matoscolon was a mechanical maintenance supervisor who entered the Army in March 1984 and was assigned to Schofield Barracks in April 2004.

Banks was a senior food management supervisor who entered the Army in March 1988 and was assigned to Schofield Barracks in May 2003.

The transport helicopter crashed as it returned to Bagram from a supply and transport mission. The charred wreckage was found in an area of flat desert.

Officials reported no sign of enemy fire and suggested bad visibility and strong winds could have been factors in the crash.

In Iraq, 67 soldiers and civilians with Hawaii ties have died since 2003.