US military identifies 2 Special Ops forces killed in Black Hawk crash
The US Army has identified two special operations soldiers killed in a Black Hawk helicopter crash during a training flight at a Southern California military base that also injured three more service members.
In a Saturday press release, the Army identified the dead servicemen as 33-year-old Staff Sgt. Vincent Marketta from New Jersey and 22-year-old Sgt. Tyler Shelton from California, adding that both were Black Hawk helicopter technicians assigned to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, headquartered at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Both soldiers had fought in the US war in Afghanistan. Marketta was also deployed to Iraq during the massive military invasion of the country by American forces that began in 2003.
The crash – which marked a persisting series of deadly accidents in US military installations in recent months – also wounded three other soldiers at a military training base on San Clemente Island on Thursday, but few other details about the incident were released by the United States Army Special Operations Command (SOCOM).
San Clemente Island is a US Navy-controlled territory about 112 kilometers west of the southern California city of San Diego and is used by various branches of the American military with its airfield and bombing range.
The latest US military fatalities come about a month after eight Marines and one Navy sailor with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit died after a Navy amphibious assault vehicle (AAV) sank in several hundred feet of water during an exercise off the same island on July 30.
The incident marked the deadliest of several others involving AAVs that have occurred during Camp Pendleton exercises in recent years.
In 2017, 14 Marines and one Navy sailor ended up in hospital after their vehicle struck a natural gas line at the camp, causing a fire that engulfed the landing craft.
And in a 2011 incident, a Marine was killed when an amphibious assault vehicle sank offshore of the camp during training.
The Marines use the AAVs to transport troops and their equipment from Navy ships to land. They are nicknamed “amtracs” because the original name for the vehicle was “amphibious tractor.”
The armored vehicles outfitted with machine guns and grenade launchers look like tanks as they roll ashore for beach attacks, with Marines pouring out of them to take up positions.
The Marine Expeditionary Force is the Marine Corps’ main war-fighting regiment. There are three such groups which are made up of ground, air and logistics forces.
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