Five U.S. Army Special Operations forces have died in a helicopter crash in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, American officials said on Sunday.
The troops were crew members of an MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter that was on a refueling training mission late Friday when the aircraft crashed off the coast of Cyprus, three U.S. officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational details. The crash is under investigation, they said.
The Pentagon has quietly dispatched to Cyprus commando teams from the Joint Special Operations Command, including the Army’s Delta Force and the Navy’s SEAL Team 6, to stand by in case they are needed to help evacuate American citizens from the region.
The commandos are also trained in hostage rescue operations. About a dozen or so American hostages were seized when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, but Biden administration officials have indicated they have no plans to put American boots on the ground in the densely populated Gaza Strip, where the Israel military is now conducting major ground operations.
The helicopter crew members who died were members of the Army’s elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers, and are among the aviators assigned to ferry the commandos on clandestine missions.
An American aircraft carrier, the Gerald R. Ford, is also operating in the eastern Mediterranean off the coast of Israel, in what the Biden administration has said is a deterrent to Iran and its proxies in the region to widen the Gaza war.
In a statement on Sunday, the military’s European Command acknowledged the deaths of the five service members in what it said was “a routine air refueling mission,” but released no other information about the crash, the crew or its unit in a reflection of the secrecy surrounding the unit’s mission.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said in a statement on Sunday, “We mourn the tragic loss of five U.S. service members during a training accident in the Mediterranean Sea.”
President Biden, noting that it was Veterans Day weekend, said: “Our service members put their lives on the line for our country every day. They willingly take risks to keep the American people safe and secure.”
The team gets to Gaza. There has been much grumbling. They are talking among themselves in the APC.
"We know all the important Arabic - 'Put your hands up', 'Stop', 'You're dead'. I say - fuck speaking Hebrew and we do what we always do - use English and kill anything that moves."
"Yeah."
"Uh, huh."
"Yeah."
"..."
"Mike, you doin' this or not? It has to be all of us."
5 U.S. Special Operations Forces Killed in Helicopter Crash in Mediterranean
[...]
In a statement on Sunday, the military’s European Command acknowledged the deaths of the five service members in what it said was “a routine air refueling mission,” but released no other information about the crash, the crew or its unit in a reflection of the secrecy surrounding the unit’s mission.
100% an accident and also "routine" is very much the correct adjective.
One on top and one on bottom
One inside and one is out
One is screaming he's so happy
The other's screaming a passionate shout
It's the Nightman
The feelings so wrong and right, man
They're feeling so wrong and right, man
I can't fight you, man
When you come inside me
And pin me down with your strong hands
And I become The Night
The passionly passionate Nightman
The official story seems just as plausible to me as Hamas getting them since I haven't otherwise seen them attacking aircraft. It's an under-maintained and overused helicopter in a military where training accidents are routine to the point where it's barely newsworthy when its aircraft crash. The videos I've seen of aerial refueling helicopters makes it seem wildly dangerous: https://youtu.be/CvRXaS-bhOE?t=125
Helicopters full of troops crash all the time, the military doesn’t exactly do the best job making sure their cannon fodder doesn’t die in stupid accidents.
That being said, this of course could be a cover story. They were probably killing people in fucking Sudan or some bullshit.