The Coast Guard ended its search Monday for five soldiers who went missing last week after an Army helicopter vanished during a nighttime training exercise off the Hawaiian coast.
“A decision to suspend searching without finding survivors is extremely difficult given the depth of its impact,” Rear Admiral Vincent B. Atkins said in a statement.
The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was reported missing at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The soldiers, who belonged to the 25th Infantry Division's Combat Aviation Brigade, had been on a training mission with another helicopter off the western tip of Oahu.
The Army identified the soldiers Monday as Kathryn M. Bailey, 26, of Hope Mills, North Carolina; Brian M. Woeber, 41, of Decatur, Alabama; Stephen T. Cantrell, 32, of Wichita Falls, Texas; Abigail R. Milam, 33, of Jenkins, Kentucky; Michael L. Nelson, 30, of Antioch, Tennessee.
