Two Pendleton Marines ID'd among dead in helicopter crash

Two Pendleton Marines ID'd among dead in helicopter crash
By: JOE BECK - Staff Writer

CAMP PENDLETON ---- At least two Marines from Camp Pendleton were among the seven service members killed Wednesday in a helicopter crash in Iraq.

Thursday, family members and reports from hometown newspapers identified the dead as Sgt. Travis Pfister 27, of Richland, Wash., and Capt. Jennifer J. Harris, 28, of Swampscott, Mass. Both were killed when the CH-46 Sea Knight troop-transport helicopter they were riding in went down about 20 miles west of Baghdad in Anbar province, an area that has been the scene of many Marine casualties in Iraq.

The identities of the other dead, reportedly three Marines and two sailors, were unavailable from the Pentagon.

Pfister's wife, Sgt. Jessica Pfister, is a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton. Thursday, she said in a phone interview that her husband sent her an e-mail on the day he died that referred to his scheduled return to Camp Pendleton on March 5, which would have completed his third deployment to Iraq.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation. Three Marine Corps officials said Wednesday that witnesses in nearby Marine aircraft saw the stricken helicopter in flames but saw no evidence of hostile fire. The witnesses reported that the pilot appeared to attempt an emergency landing but lost control of the aircraft as it descended, according to Marine officials. Their account differed from that of an Iraqi air force officer who said an anti-aircraft missile brought down the helicopter.

Pfister, Harris and the downed helicopter were from Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 364, known as the "Purple Foxes." The squadron is based at Camp Pendleton and attached to Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.

John Sacherski, commander of VFW Post 1240 in Swampscott, said the town was "devastated" by the loss of Harris, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and the second person from the community to die in Iraq since September.

A story in the Boston Herald quoted John Schultz, a confidant of the family, as saying that Swampscott threw a "welcome home" party for Harris last summer, and she communicated regularly with family members in her hometown.

"This was her third tour," Schultz told the Herald. "She was scheduled to come home next week."

The Boston Globe quoted a statement from her family: "Jennifer Harris exemplified the best of what this country has to offer. She was proud to be a Marine and proud to serve her country."

Jessica Pfister said Thursday she knew all too well the hazards her husband faced in Iraq. Both were in the Marines when they met in 1999 at a Christmas party.

"I was cold and he gave me a coat. He told me he didn't like me, he was just tired of seeing me shiver," Pfister recalled.

They married in 2001 in a ceremony described on an unofficial squadron Web site as "a traditional Marine Corps affair with most of the Purple Foxes in attendance."

Jessica Pfister said Travis left the Marines in 2003 and went to work as a civilian mechanic with Boeing Co. Meanwhile, she stayed in the Marines as a recruiter in Oceanside and Temecula.

In 2005, Travis Pfister re-entered the Marines after learning that the Purple Foxes unit was scheduled to return to Iraq. One of its main tasks in Iraq is evacuating the wounded to medical facilities. Pfister worked in the unit as a crew chief.

Jessica Pfister said she feared for him in Iraq and he had sought to obtain an assignment with a unit not scheduled to deploy to Iraq during his last stay in the United States.

"I didn't want him flying anymore because I was afraid he was going to get shot down, and he said, 'You know the crew chief never dies.' He was very strong, very strong," Jessica Pfister said.

She said her husband loved the Marine Corps and helicopters, and saw himself as someone with a special responsibility to other members of his unit, especially those with less experience.

"He told me he was very concerned about them. They had the look of fear in their eyes, and he wanted to be there to look after them," Jessica Pfister said. "He didn't want anyone else to be scared. He knew what he was doing, and he was confident of what he was doing."

Richard Pfister, Travis Pfister's father, said his son was always fascinated by the military growing up on a farm in eastern Washington.

"He loved flying helicopters. He was always volunteering when somebody couldn't go on a mission," Pfister said of his son.

Friday, February 9, 2007

Two sailors identified in CH-46 crash in Iraq

By Joseph Giordono, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, February 10, 2007

Two of the victims of Wednesday’s crash of a Marine Corps CH-46 helicopter in Iraq have been identified by the Pentagon as Navy corpsmen.

Petty Officer 1st Class Gilbert Minjares Jr., 31, of El Paso, Texas, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Manuel A. Ruiz, 21, of Federalsburg, Md., were killed in the crash, the cause of which is still under investigation.

Minjares was assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 14, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, Cherry Point, N.C. Ruiz was assigned to 2nd Medical Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Ruiz, 21, was on the second week of his second Iraq tour when he was among seven servicemembers killed in the crash west of Baghdad. The crash was the fourth American military helicopter to go down since Jan. 20. While the other three were shot down, U.S. military officials have said enemy fire was not likely the cause of Wednesday’s crash.

The five other casualties of the crash were Marines, a military official said Friday.

Family members remembered Ruiz as “Little Manuel” — named after his father — and an energetic, fun young man.

Ruiz was committed to his job in Iraq, they said.

“He pretty much demanded to go back,” Adam Lusk, a family friend, was quoted as saying to reporters.

Ruiz was assigned to the 2nd Medical Battalion, which supports the II Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. The Pentagon withholds names of the dead until their families are notified; official identifications are expected in the coming days.

Minjares had only been in Iraq for seven days before the crash, family members said.

“He gave me all his clothes and stuff, like he knew what was going to happen,” Jose Minjares, Gilbert’s brother, told an El Paso newspaper. “He told me, ‘If anything happens, I want you to let my kids know I did it for them.’”

Minjares is survived by his wife, a 2-year-old son and a 4-week-old newborn, family members said.

On Thursday, the commandant of the Marine Corps said the recent helicopter incidents represented an “intensity of effort” by insurgents. Gen. James Conway also said that Marine officials did not believe the CH-46 was shot down this week. A Sunni insurgent group has claimed it shot down the helicopter, and news reports cited witnesses as saying they saw it shot down.

Conway, in comments made to a group of government executives at a Washington hotel, also said the Marines are worried about newer versions of anti-aircraft missiles showing up in Iraq.

“More troubling is the appearance of SA-16s and SA-18s,” Conway was quoted as saying. SA-16s and SA-18s are surface-to-air missiles.

An al-Qaida-linked insurgent group posted a Web video Friday showing what it said was the downing of a U.S. military helicopter earlier this week.

The two-minute video — which says it shows the “downing of U.S. aircraft on Feb. 7” — shows a helicopter that appears to be a Sea Knight flying. An object trailing smoke is seen in the sky nearby, and then the craft bursts into orange and red flames, with a spray of debris emerging from it.

It is not clear whether the object is a rocket, and it cannot be clearly seen connecting with the craft.

The video was issued by the Islamic State in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iraqi insurgent groups that includes al-Qaida in Iraq. The group on Wednesday issued a written claim of responsibility for the craft’s downing and had promised a video would follow.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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