sikorsky uh-60a black hawk (81-23647)

SIKORSKY UH-60A BLACK HAWK HELICOPTER (81-23647)
A UH-60A #81-23647 Black Hawk helicopter (Call sign "Hawk 47") assigned to the 55th ARRS at Eglin AFB, FL., crashed near Pope AFB, NC. Aug. 14, killing its four crew members.

Dead are: Capt. Ralph Gehringer, 26 from Tocoma, WA., aircraft commander; Capt. Jeffrey Stevens, 26, Billings, MT., instructor pilot, and SrA. Jeff Beseke, 21, Alexandria, MN., flight engineer. All were assigned to the 55th ARRS.

The fourth crew member was Maj. Kenneth Reinhard, 42, from Cibolo, TX., a helicopter pilot and an air operations officer from Detachment 2, 23rd Air Force at Fort Bragg, NC. Maj. Reinhard was being given his 'fini' flight as he had retired from active duty that day.

The UH-60 helicopter and its three Eglin crew members had been at Pope since Aug. 11 for training. The helicopter departed Pope Aug. 14 at 3:30 p.m. EDT on a training mission to Andrews AFB, MD.

The helicopter crashed in a heavily wode area on Fort Bragg, about four miles north of Pope AFB. The cause of the crash is under investigation.