Pilots Helped Save Crew, Marines Say

The death toll in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan on Sunday that killed two Marines and injured five others might have been higher but for the quick action of the two pilots, Marine Corps officials said Tuesday.

Indications are that Capt. Douglas V. Glasgow and Capt. William J. Cody kept the CH-53E Super Stallion as stable as possible after it developed a mechanical problem while on a resupply mission, said Lt. Col. David L. Spasojevich.

And Glasgow apparently saved Cody’s life by pulling him out of the burning wreckage after the crash, said Spasojevich, commanding officer of Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361, known as the Flying Tigers.

“Capt. Glasgow did perform heroic acts there and probably is singularly responsible for anyone surviving the crash,” Spasojevich said.

At a news conference at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar here, Spasojevich said there is no indication that the mechanical problem that struck the helicopter is the same one that led the Marine Corps to ground the entire Super Stallion fleet in 2000 for inspection and retrofits to the rotor assembly. The helicopters were grounded after a similar Navy helicopter crashed off the coast of Texas, killing four sailors.

Spasojevich said the CH-53E was particularly suited for the Afghanistan mission, where it is being used to carry heavy loads over long distances and rough terrain. “It was the best aircraft we could provide,” he said.

Staff Sgt. Walter F. Cohee III, 26, of Mardela Springs, Md., and Staff Sgt. Dwight J. Morgan, 24, of Willits in Northern California, were killed in the crash.

Glasgow, Cody and three enlisted crew members were slightly injured. The five are at a U.S. military facility in Germany.

Glasgow, 33, a graduate of the Naval Academy, is stationed at the Marines’ air station in Yuma, Ariz. The other six crew members were from the Miramar base.

The crash came just 11 days after seven Marines from the Miramar base were killed when their KC-130 transport and refueling plane crashed while attempting a night landing in Pakistan. No cause has been determined.

In the helicopter crash, officials have said only that the aircraft, a workhorse of the Marine Corps, made a “hard landing” at about 9,000 feet above sea level in the mountains outside Bagram air base, north of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital.

Flying at that altitude can be difficult for helicopters because the thin air provides less for the rotors to “bite into,” Staff Sgt. Bret Ziegler said.

Marines from the Flying Tigers squadron said they were shocked when they learned of Sunday’s crash.

“I was all right on the phone when they called me, but I lost it after that,” Ziegler said. “I was just glad I was at home with my wife instead of at work.”

Cohee was remembered as a devotee of Harley-Davidson motorcycles and NASCAR auto racing. Morgan, who was promoted to staff sergeant posthumously, was “a great Marine who was always looking out for the Marines in his squad,” said Lance Cpl. Ken Keown.

“I want everybody to know he was the best, and he’ll be in our hearts forever,” said Morgan’s widow, Teresa, who is expecting the couple’s second child in July. “He will be in our thoughts forever.”

Morgan was on a six-month deployment to the Middle East last year. Normally, that would have meant he would have been assigned stateside duty, but when the war on terrorism was declared, he was selected to go to Afghanistan.

Morgan was a helicopter mechanic, and Cohee was a communications navigation technician. A memorial service is to be held at Miramar next week.