CWO Aaron Weaver: KIA Jan 9, 2004
Mogadishu survivor felled in Black Hawk crash
Aaron Weaver fought to serve in Iraq, battled cancer, then died when Army helicopter went down in Iraq
By Don Teague
Correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 7:16 p.m. ET Jan. 09, 2004
Above all things, Chief Warrant Officer Aaron Weaver was a survivor. As a 22-year-old sergeant, Weaver was part of the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia -- where 18 U.S. Army soldiers lost their lives.
From MSNBC
The fight was chronicled in the movie "Black Hawk Down."
In Mogadishu, Weaver's vehicle took a direct hit from a rocket-propelled grenade, but he wasn't injured.
He later spoke in a TV documentary about his experience and on seeing one of the Black Hawks crash.
"And you could see a helicopter just lose that thrust when it hit the tail rotor and started spinning around ... and I lost it behind that building," Weaver said.
Later, Weaver earned his wings as an army aviator in Iraq, piloting a Kiowa Warrior helicopter -- battling Iraqi guerrillas while also fighting testicular cancer.
"He was an Army Ranger. Tough mentally and tough physically," said Mike Weaver, Aaron Weaver's father.
Weaver's parents say Weaver so wanted to serve in Iraq, he convinced doctors to sign a waiver allowing him to go despite his cancer.
"He was proud to be a Ranger. And proud to be a pilot," said Kelly Weaver, his mother.
He was riding in the back of a medical evacuation helicopter Wednesday, on his way to a routine medical checkup, when the chopper crashed.
Weaver and eight other soldiers died.
"He died doing what he was proud doing," his mother said. "He would want me to say that if he was here."
Aaron Weaver was supposed to finally come home next month. He leaves behind a wife and 1-year-old daughter.
His brother, a Black Hawk pilot also serving in Iraq, is on his way home now, hoping to say goodbye to a proud soldier who survived so much -- and sacrificed everything.
From Knight-Ridder
INVERNESS, Fla. -- When his family gathers to bury Aaron Weaver, 32, an Army helicopter pilot from Inverness killed near Fallujah, Iraq this week, three of his seven brothers and sisters will return for the funeral from active military duty all over the world.
They'll bring home memories of a smiling, outdoors-loving graduate of Citrus High School where he was a straight-A student athlete and later a volunteer track coach.
They'll remember a survivor.
He was a younger soldier in 1993 when he overcame a hail of bullets trying to rescue a downed Blackhawk helicopter crew Mogadishu in Somalia. The battle was chronicled in the book and movie "Blackhawk Down."
A decade later, Weaver overcame testicular cancer. He insisted on a medical waiver from the Army so he would be able to deploy with the 82nd Airborne to Iraq, where he was a helicopter observer pilot, said Michael Weaver, his father.
snip
Aaron Weaver, an Army Ranger observer helicopter pilot, was killed Thursday when a transport helicopter he was a passenger on was hit, apparently by a rocket-propelled grenade, near the central Iraq town of Fallujah.
Eight others were killed in the helicopter that military officials said was marked with a red cross because of its medical mission.
snip
"His older brother was an Army Ranger and Aaron wanted to follow in his footsteps," Michael Weaver said in a phone interview.
He was getting out of Iraq in February and he said he didn't want any more food sent, just books, the elder Weaver said, recalling their last conversation less than a week ago. And they talked of how much his year-old daughter, Savannah, looked like her dad.
The dead pilot is also survived by his wife, Nancy, and his mother, Kelly.