Active members of our military serving in the Gulf

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Serving in Harm's Way.

NAME/ADDRESS		COMMENTS
James H. ("Jamie") HAMBY	Ex-Marine, Army Soldier in Bakubah	Son of Jim and Pat Hamby of Conover
T/Sgt. Charles B. JOST		Nephew of Ann K. Propst
C. Ronnie WILLIAMS	Survivor of the Iraq War Safely back in the USA	Maiden HS grad, 1991

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friends and neighbors, your sons and fathers,
and those who are serving the cause of freedom.

Three Fort Bragg Soldiers were killed Monday, April 29, 2004, when their UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter went down in a wooded area off Interstate 95 near Dillon, S.C. Killed in the accident were:

Chief Warrant Officer 3,
Bruce D. Boggs, 37,
of Conover, N.C.,

1st Lt. Candace L. Voegele-Daniels, 24, of Arkansas City, Kan., and Spc. Christopher K. Bingaman, 22, of Frackville, Penn. Boggs, company safety officer, and Bingaman, a UH-60 crew chief, were assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment. Voegele-Daniels, company executive officer, was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Co., 1st Bn., 159th Aviation Reg.

The Soldiers were conducting a routine nighttime navigation training exercise using night vision goggles when the accident occurred. Flying in tandem with another UH-60, the crew departed Fort Bragg at 8:30 p.m. Monday night, with an expected return time of 12:30 a.m. Tuesday.

At approximately 9:50 p.m., the two aircraft lost contact with each other. One of the aircraft diverted to Dillon, S.C., where it landed safely, according to Maj. Richard Patterson, XVIII Airborne Corps Public Affairs Office.

Patterson said the crew immediately reported the loss of contact, and between 10 and 10:30 p.m., the Florence County Emergency Management Service began search operations. Soldiers from the 18th Aviation Brigade, along with crews of two UH-60 helicopters, two OH-58D helicopters and the South Carolina Civil Air Patrol joined the search at daybreak on Tuesday.

The FCEMS SPECOPS Team worked in search operations as well as assisting in rehabilitation for the many searchers involved in the effort to find the crew and copter. Sgt. Stiver Powell was embedded in an Army search team, and Lt. Linda Reynolds was placed with a Florence County Sheriffs Department team. There was very heavy undergrowth in the area, proceeding down towards the river across a descending swampy area with hundreds of years of growth in places, with minimal access roads. This hampered mere walking, and made sighting anything very difficult.

The downed aircraft was located at 7:55 p.m. Tuesday evening in the vicinity of the Great Pee Dee River and I-95, in the search area. Patterson said the wreckage was located by a South Carolina citizen who spotted the wreckage, and notified officials.

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