Christopher C. Johnson
Profile
Age: 31
From: Michigan
Assigned to the 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment, Task Force 49, Fort Wainwright, Alaska
Incident: Army Chief Warrant Officer Christopher C. Johnson died Aug. 14 in Taqaddum, Iraq, of injuries sustained when his helicopter crashed. Also killed were Chief Warrant Officer Jackie L. McFarlane, Staff Sgt. Sean P. Fisher, Staff Sgt. Stanley B. Reynolds and Spc. Steven R. Jewell.
Died: August 14, 2007
New Mexico family mourns pilot killed in Iraq
By Susan Montoya Bryan
The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Christopher Johnson looked danger in the eye many times before as a Green Beret, but it was his dream of flying for the armed services that led him to train to become part of a helicopter crew.
The 31-year-old pilot accomplished his goal and was doing what he loved when he was killed Aug. 14 near Anbar province in Iraq. His CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed during a routine post-maintenance test flight, killing all five on board.
Charles and Mary Johnson, of Gallup, N.M., were informed of their son’s death the next morning.
“I found out a helicopter crashed yesterday when I was on the computer and saw a news flash. I clicked on it and saw that it was a Chinook and it was about the area that we knew he was in,” Mary Johnson said in a telephone interview Aug. 15.
“He...