Fort Rucker lost 2 members suspected murder-suicide

Guardsman kills wife, man, then himself, authorities say
FOX News
Dom Calicchio
May 11, 2018

A National Guard member entered a Florida hotel room last weekend and fatally shot his estranged wife and another man before turning the gun on himself, authorities said.

Mark and Amanda Stokes are seen in an image from Mark Stokes' Facebook page. (Facebook)

Police identified the gunman as Mark Stokes, 37, a major in the Army National Guard who was stationed at Fort Rucker in Enterprise, Ala.

His wife was identified as Amanda Stokes, 28, a sergeant in the Army National Guard, also at Fort Rucker.

The other man was identified as Kenneth Walker Krause, 30, formerly of Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
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Fort Hood Soldier Found Dead at Fort Rucker Hotel

Soldier found dead at Fort Rucker hotel identified
WTVY.com
By April Davis
Feb 28, 2017

FORT RUCKER, Ala. (WTVY) – [UPDATE: February 28, 2017]
The soldier found deceased yesterday on Fort Rucker has been identified as Chief Warrant Officer Two Andre G. Nance.

Nance was 34 years of age and was previously stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. He was at Fort Rucker for the Warrant Officer Advance Course with onward orders to his next duty station at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

At approximately 7:42 a.m. yesterday, an IHG employee called 911 after discovering Nance unresponsive in lodging on post. Upon examination, an Army flight surgeon declared him deceased.

The cause of death is currently under investigation by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command.
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Former Black Hawk Pilot Helping Arizona Veterans

Ex-Black Hawk pilot now advises AZ veterans agency 
Arizona Daily Star
By Becky Pallack
October 10, 2015

“Changing the perspective is really what we’re about,” he said. “It’s about seeing veterans not as a problem but as the solution.”

Rustand keeps this drawing of a
helicopter, similar to those he flew, in his office.

Brett Rustand served his country and now spends his free time serving his fellow veterans.

“I don’t know if it was before the military or if the military created it in me, but I know that lots of people — the vast majority of veterans coming out of the service — carry with them a desire to serve,” he said.

Rustand’s first military experience was competing in an ROTC Ranger Challenge competition with his good friend and college roommate, Ben Shaha.

“I realized it was something that I absolutely loved … and so I jumped right in,” Rustand said.

His plan had been to go to law school, but instead he commissioned in the aviation branch of the Army in 1999. He went to flight school at Fort Rucker in Alabama and became a Black Hawk helicopter pilot.
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Fort Rucker soldier found dead after training

Fort Rucker soldier found dead, ID'd
Associated Press
Jul. 13, 2013

DALEVILLE, ALA. — The Army says a soldier has been found dead at Fort Rucker in southeast Alabama after disappearing during a navigation training exercise earlier this week.

AL.com reported Friday the soldier has been identified as Darrell R. McNealy, a 40-year-old student at the warrant officer training school at Fort Rucker.
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Author reunites "Super Slick" crew with Huey

Vietnam crew returns to helicopter's W.Va. home
MARY WADE BURNSIDE
Times West Virginian
June 9, 2013

FAIRMONT, W.Va. (AP) — Tom Feigel spent a year in Vietnam as the crew chief of a Huey helicopter, flying out on night missions that would have the aircraft called into battle or going over into Cambodia and Laos to drop off and pick up soldiers.

"You fly that helicopter every single day," said Feigel, a Webster, N.Y., resident who was an Army Specialist 5 as part of the 366th Assault Helicopter Co. out of Soc Trang, Vietnam.

"It's your home. You do have attachments to it, and to the crew, because of some of the situations and firefights you were in with them. So there is a special bond between the crew and the ship."

These days Feigel's Vietnam "home" now resides in Fairmont as part of the Marion County Vietnam Veterans Memorial, located at the entrance to East Marion Park off the Gateway Connector.

For a long time, Feigel had no idea that the "ship" he spent so much time on actually still exists, and is located only about a seven-hour drive away from where he lives in New York.

"I had tracked the helicopter from Vietnam back to Fort Hood, Texas," Feigel said.

"Apparently, the helicopter was transferred from Fort Hood to Fort Rucker. This was 15 years ago."

Feigel lost track of the helicopter — dubbed "Super Slick" — and figured it had been parceled out. But in January of last year, John Brennan, an author working on a book on military choppers, contacted him and another member of the crew, Tom Wilkes, and informed them that the ship was in Fairmont.

The helicopter had made its way to Fairmont after Alfred Knoll, an area veteran, spent four years working with the military to get a piece of equipment to display at the Marion County Vietnam Veterans Memorial. He drove to Fort Rucker in Alabama to pick it up and learned that the aircraft he had been promised already had been given away.
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