An HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter deployed from the New York Air National Guard’s 106th Rescue Wing to Afghanistan crashed Jan. 16 near Kabul with no injuries to crew or passengers, reports the Long Island Newsday. A Jan. 16 release from US Forces-Afghanistan noted the crash was of a US Black Hawk helicopter, the Army’s UH-60 version of the Sikorsky helicopter, but the Newsday report quotes 106th RQW spokesperson Lt. Col. Mary Ann Cline, who confirmed it was an HH-60 from the Gabreski Airport-based 106th. The 106th RQW airmen were on a medical evacuation mission at the time of the incident.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.