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North Stafford man killed in Afghanistan helicopter crash Date published: 7/1/2005
By MELISSA NIX A 31-year-old Army sergeant originally from North Stafford is believed to be one of 16 U.S. service members killed in Tuesday's helicopter crash in Afghanistan. Lee Russell, the father of Master Sgt. Michael Russell, said he was told Wednesday by a chaplain and an officer from Fort Belvoir that his son was dead. Yesterday afternoon, Lt. Gen. James Conway, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Pentagon reporters that 16 bodies aboard the helicopter had been recovered. Authorities initially reported 17 people were on board, but the manifest included a person who apparently missed the flight, military officials told The Associated Press. It was the heaviest loss of American lives in a single attack in Afghanistan. Russell's family learned Tuesday night that elements of his unit, the 3rd Battalion of the Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, had been aboard the MH-47 Chinook helicopter shot down by insurgents. The unit is based at Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah, Ga. The waiting was terrible for the family. "The longer it went, the worse it got," Russell's father said, as he talked with a reporter via cell phone while en route to Russell's home in Savannah, Ga., to be with his son's wife, Annette, and his two granddaughters, Lauren, 5, and Magan, 1. Though Russell was a family man, he never complained about being sent out of the country, his father said. "His unit was one of the only ones [in the armed forces] who could perform such missions against the Taliban." The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment is equipped with specially designed Chinooks that are versatile in all types of terrain, weather and low-light conditions. The downed MH-47 was one of these special helicopters. This was the sixth time Russell, a flight engineer, had been sent to Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001. He was first sent there on the second Sunday after the World Trade Center attacks. Russell returned to Afghanistan a month and a half ago, said his father. He was able to see his son a few days before his departure, but had had no communication with him since he left.
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