Military:Troops Accounted for After Crash

[cal04]

The 10 U.S. troops missing after two Marine Corps transport helicopters crashed into the sea have been accounted for, the military said Saturday, but it did not specify whether they had survived the mishap. The CH-53E choppers, carrying a dozen crew and troops, went down Friday in the Gulf of Aden, near the northern coastal town of Ras Siyyan.

The cause of the crash was unclear, but there was no indication of hostile fire and an investigation was under way, said Maj. Susan Romano of the U.S.-led Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa. The Djibouti military rescued two crew members, who were to be transported Saturday to the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, Romano said. The 10 other crew members were accounted for after rescuers searched the waters off Djibouti's coast.

``Crew members have been accounted for from the crash of two CH-53E helicopters off the coast of Djibouti Friday,'' according to a statement from the joint task force headquarters at Camp Lemonier, a French military base in Djibouti. The statement said no further information about the crew's condition would be released because ``next-of-kin notifications are still ongoing.'' Search and rescue efforts at the crash site have been curtailed, but crews were still hunting for relevant information, equipment and wreckage as an investigation into the cause of the crash was under way, according to the task force statement. The crew who were rescued Friday were listed in stable condition.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5629831,00.html

[Spazito]

1. The very fact they didn't say the word 'survivor/s' at all can only

mean, imo, there weren't any beyond the initial two reported. I hope I am wrong.

[saigon68]

2. There will be more "they died for freedom" rhetoric

Good thing the US has to discipline brown and black peoples </sarcasm>

[MADem]

3. Bodes ill, sorry to say

Had they been recovered alive, they likely would have so stated.

[htuttle]

4. They're goners

"Accounted for", as in 'found' as in 'recovered'. Not 'rescued' (as they describe the two they got Friday).

I think it disparages their sacrifice to try to cover up their deaths like this.

[rodeodance]

5. yes, but I am glad the bodies have been found.