Anchorage Daily News

Two soldiers based at Fort Wainwright were killed in Iraq over the weekend when their helicopter crashed during a mission over Mosul, the Department of Defense said Monday.

Killed were Chief Warrant Officer Donald V. Clark, 37, of Memphis, Tenn., and Chief Warrant Officer Christian P. Humphreys, 28, of Fallon, Nev., the department said.

Both men were assigned to the 6th Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, Task Force 49.

The aviators were flying in an OH-58 Kiowa helicopter Saturday when the aircraft went down, said Army spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Allen. The Army did not immediately release details on what the mission entailed, but Allen said initially it did not appear they were taking fire.

"There's nothing indicating that they were," Allen said. "They were flying a mission over the Mosul, Iraq, area and they crashed. The cause of that is under investigation."

The investigation into the crash could range in duration from a matter of weeks to months, he said.

Clark and Humphreys were the only two on board the helicopter; no one else was killed or injured, the Army said. Both men were pilots, though the Army did not say which one of them was flying the helicopter on Saturday.

Clark joined the Army in February 1992 and was assigned to Fort Wainwright in November 2006. Humphreys joined the Army in June 1998 and was assigned to Fort Wainwright in April of this year.

The men deployed to Iraq in July, Allen said.

As of Monday, at least 4,200 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.

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