At about 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 17, an MH-60 Black Hawk went down on a routine training flight west of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. All four soldiers aboard died.
The Army named them on the following Monday: chief warrant officers Andrew Cully and Andrew Kraus, and sergeants Donavon Scott and Jadalyn Good. Cully was 35 and came from Sparta, Missouri. Kraus, 39, was from Sanibel, Florida. Scott, 25, was from Tacoma, Washington, and Good, 23, from Mount Vernon, Washington.
All four belonged to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the Night Stalkers, an elite unit built around night missions. U.S. Army Special Operations Command said the flight was routine training. The cause is under investigation. The National Weather Service reported mostly clear skies and light southerly winds around the time of the crash.
Who they were
Cully was commissioned in May 2013 as an aviation officer out of Missouri State University and deployed in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve and Operation Swift Response. Kraus joined the Army in 2017, supported multiple training missions and deployed on contingency response operations.
Scott enlisted as a UH-60 helicopter repairer and served on two support missions for Operation Inherent Resolve. Good worked as a helicopter maintainer, and the Army said she was “instrumental in the success” of numerous training missions. Each of the four collected several awards, among them the Meritorious Service Medal and the Army Service Ribbon.
Col. Stephen Smith said the soldiers “embodied the unwavering dedication, selflessness, and excellence that define the very spirit of the Army and Army Special Operations.” Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga, the USASOC commander, put it this way: “They were elite warriors who embodied the highest values of the Army and the Army Special Operations, and their sacrifice will never be forgotten.”
Recovery at the site
Law enforcement, firefighters and specialty personnel from the joint base worked the crash site. Braga thanked the people “working tirelessly, around the clock to bring our soldiers home.” The crash also started a small wildfire. By Friday morning it had grown to 1.25 acres, according to the Washington Department of Natural Resources, which sent one engine because there was “pretty minimal fire activity.” The base sits about 10 miles south of Tacoma.
A unit that has lost people before
This was the regiment’s second deadly crash in recent years. Five aviation special operations soldiers from the 160th, based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, died in 2023 when a helicopter went down in the Eastern Mediterranean during a routine air refueling training mission. In March 2024, two soldiers from the Lewis-McChord unit were hospitalized after their Apache crashed at the base during a training exercise.
Sources
- 4 soldiers killed in Black Hawk helicopter crash in Washington state identified by Army
- Four soldiers killed in Washington state helicopter crash, Army says
Sources
- 4 soldiers killed in Black Hawk helicopter crash in Washington state…
- Four soldiers killed in Washington state helicopter crash, Army says
