killing 5 people (including the pilots).
My husband is a Blackhawk pilot.
We are using some of his leave to visit his family and travel because he is deploying to Iraq next year.
Anyway, on this particular morning, we were at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Santa Barbara, California, and I had to go to the main lodging lobby to use the internet.
As I was checking my email, I hear CNN report, "helicopter crash in Italy" and I look up instinctively.
When my eyes met that television screen and my brain registered the now familiar Blackhawk form with its missing tail rotor and crumpled nose, I was instantaneously transported to a place that I religiously avoid: a place where his call to tell me he landed safely never comes, where my worst fear for him and us and our children is confirmed by strangers at the door that our 4 year old will probably answer before I do...
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