ROCHESTER â Sadness and mourning, tears and honor.
Hundreds of people attended a Friday memorial honoring and remembering three soldiers killed last month when their helicopter crashed in Ontario County.
Christian Koch, Steven Skoda and Daniel Prial died Jan. 20 when their UH-60 Blackhawk crashed off West Bloomfield Road in Mendon. They had been on a routine training mission.
An afternoon service was conducted Friday inside the Army Aviation Facility in Rochester.
âIt is really just a ceremony to celebrate their lives and recognize what they have done,â Bravo Company, 642 Commander Maj. Mike Jamieson said.
Chief Warrant Officers Steven Skoda, Christian Koch and Daniel Prial are remembered during a memorial service on Friday in Rochester. The three National Guard soldiers were killed during a routine training mission in Mendon on Jan. 20. Courtesy of the Army National Guard
Christian Koch never would have kept them waiting.
On Wednesday evening, when Koch s family first heard rumblings on social media about a military helicopter that crashed in Mendon, they tried to call him.
Two helicopters had gone out for a training exercise that night, said his sister-in-law Aimee Koch. Frantically, they tried to figure out which aircraft he was on. It became increasingly clear as we tried to reach him by cellphone that he was involved, she said. Christian never would have made anybody worry. . As time went by and we didn t get that call, we knew.
Koch, 39, died Wednesday along with two other New York Army National Guard soldiers when their UH-60 medical evacuation helicopter crashed while on a routine training mission just after 6:30 p.m.
The three decorated National Guard members killed in an upstate New York helicopter crash during a routine training mission were identified Friday as Afghanistan war veterans, with the senior member boasting 35 years in the military.
Oft-honored Chief Warrant Officer Steven Skoda, 54, was the longes
National Guard trio killed in NY helicopter crash identified nydailynews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nydailynews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
MENDON, New York (WABC) The U.S. Army has identified the three National Guard members who were killed in a helicopter crash during a training exercise after the remains of the troops were recovered from the rural upstate New York crash site, including one who was a native of Orange County.
The UH-60 Black Hawk medical evacuation helicopter crashed in a farmer s field in rural Mendon, south of Rochester, around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. There were no survivors.
The aircraft and crew was assigned to C Company of the 1st Battalion, 171st General Support Aviation Battalion. The unit trains to perform aeromedical evacuation, and the crew had been conducting night vision goggle proficiency training in the local training area.