HONOLULU (AP) -- The
Pentagon on Wednesday confirmed that three U.S. soldiers
killed in a plane crash high in
Afghanistan's snow-covered
mountains last weekend were
from Schofield Barracks in Honolulu.
The remains of Lt. Col. Michael J. McMahon, 41, of Connecticut; Chief Warrant Officer
Travis W. Grogan, 31, of
Moore, Okla.; and Spc. Harley
D. Miller, 21, of Spokane,
Wash., were recovered along
with three civilian crew members aboard the plane. Their
bodies were being flown back
to the United States.
The fixed-wing CASA 212
plane went down Saturday, but
search efforts were complicated
by bad weather and difficult terrain, said military spokesman
Maj. Mark McCann.
"An investigation will be conducted to determine the cause
of the crash. However, at this
time, we have no indication this
crash was caused by hostile
fire," McCann said.
The bodies were found amid
the debris of the plane in the
Hindu Kush mountains, southeast of Bamiyan.
"The indications we have is
that it got into a valley and
tried to gain altitude quickly,"
Maj. Gen. Eric Olson told The
Associated Press. "The pilot apparently recognized that he was
not going to be able to gain altitude quickly enough and tried
to make a very dramatic turn,
didn't make it and crashed into
a very narrow valley."
Grogan, an aviation logistics
warrant officer assigned to the
3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 25th Infantry (Light),
joined the Army in August
1991.
