Friends, fellow Soldiers, Remember Fallen Warriors

Courtesy Photo | Chief Warrant Officer Three Mitchell Carver, a pilot with Company B, 1st Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment. Carver and fellow pilot Chief Warrant Officer Kyle Jackson were shot down while flying a mission over Mosul, Iraq, Jan. 13. His fellow pilots in Company B recently took some time to reflect on the memory of a peer and friend with whom they served.  

UNITED STATES

07.06.2006

Courtesy Story

101st Combat Aviation Brigade

It has been roughly six months since the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter flown by Chief Warrant Officer Two Kyle Jackson and Chief Warrant Officer Three Mitchell Carver was shot down over the streets of Northern Mosul, Iraq, Jan. 13, but for their friends and fellow pilots in Company B, 1st Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment, the memories of the types of people they were remains everlasting.

"He was a great guy, he would do anything for you, a real smart guy, a good aviator and a down-to-earth family guy," Chief Warrant Officer Two Andrew Barcley, a pilot with Company B recalled of his friend and fellow pilot Kyle Jackson, who was from Sarasota, Florida. "I knew him a couple years. I flew with him in the other aircraft on missions a lot. He was probably my best friend in this unit."

Barcley said he met Jackson in flight school at Fort Rucker, Ala., in the Kiowa Warrior flight class, which graduated about a month after his own class.

"When he came to Bravo Company, he was my age, he had just got out of flight school too, he had a wife with a little girl, I have a wife and two little girls, so we just kind of hit it off," Barcley said. "We hung out at Drum for about a year before we left and then when we came here, too. I"d go to the gym and stuff with him and we would hang out quite a bit. He was an interesting guy. He was in the Marines before the Army so he was really into the military. He loved all that military stuff, the Marine Corps, "Hoorah" stuff like that. I'm kind of into the same sort of thing, so we got along like that.

He was also a big family guy " he didn't really go out too much or party all the time, he stayed home with his wife and little girl. That was cool. I was into the same thing. Our families used to hang out together. Overall I"d just say he was a real decent guy." Barcley also recalled some of the funnier moments with his friend.

"He caught a lot of crap from the company because he was a loud guy and would say what was on his mind - say it the way it was, but deep down he would do anything for the company. He loved what he did, he loved the military," Barcley said.

When asked about particular moments with Jackson, Barcley and 1st Lt. Robert Redfield, who was flying in the other Kiowa helicopter when the pilots were shot down, recalled a particular fun moment that exhibited his spirit.

"He had a tendency to run his mouth and he wouldn't hold anything back," Barcley remembered with a smile. "I remember one time we were all in the office and he was repeating everything that Dan (Chief Warrant Officer Three Dan Johnson) was saying. Dan was one of the senior aviators he flew with a lot, and he was getting on Kyle, so Kyle started repeating everything Dan said. Dan was telling him "You better stop it," and he just kept going with it. That was just the kind of guy he was, he wouldn't quit. So another pilot, Dave, threw a water bottle at him. So now both of them were on Kyle. So he threw it back open and we jumped him. We taped him up to the chair and we took him out to the road. He sat there in the road as a convoy was rolling by and we got a picture of it. It was a pretty fun time."

Barcley and Redfield also said Jackson was an innovative and mechanical-minded person, with a lot of ideas.

"Kyle was the type who, if he was given a piece of equipment, would never take it as it was," Redfield said. "He always had some crazy idea or scheme. He would always take what you gave him and rig it some way totally different to improve on it."

"He was constantly trying to come up with new ideas, new things," Barcley said. "He came up with this brass catcher that caught the brass as it came flying out of your weapon. He thought that he could sell that too the Army and make a million dollars. He just kind of had the mind where if he saw everyday things he could make them better. He was real handy, real good with tools. He built a lot of his own furniture and things like that."

Chief Warrant Officer Four Ed King, remembered his friend Mitchell Carver, who grew up near Asheville, N.C., in the town of Leicester, N.C. He worked with Carver as an instructor at Fort Rucker before both came to 1-10 Attack and deployed to Iraq together. The two were also roommates at the beginning of the deployment when 1-10 Attack was at Q-West. The two asked to live and did live, next to each other, when the battalion moved to Mosul.

"From a military standpoint, he was probably one of the most professional Soldiers, officers, aviators I've ever met," King said. "He was very smart and well-rounded in a lot of areas. He was a maintenance pilot, who became an instructor pilot, who went back to becoming a maintenance pilot. Either one of those jobs is difficult for a lot of people to do. He did them both and did them both well. His potential was limitless. Whatever he did in the Army was up to him."

"He was a great friend. There was a pretty big difference in our ages " he was almost ten years younger than I was. But we had a lot in common as warrant officers and some of our backgrounds. We had a lot of good times sitting around talking about the Company, the Battalion, the Army, but also about our families. He often spoke of his brother, mother, father and girlfriend."

He said wherever he went, Carver was able to improve. He said at Fort Rucker, Carver, though an instructor pilot, was also able to handle maintenance issues, such as finding parts from units that weren't using them.

"He was a multi-tasker, he was very impressive," King said. King said he was happy to be able to serve with Carver at both Fort Rucker and as part of 1-10 Attack.

"For me, being a new guy, he was always a friendly face, someone I could talk to," King said. "He and I hit it off pretty well together."

King said his talents were not only restricted to aviation. "He was artistic, too," King said. "I remember once he found a soft stone here and within a couple days he took a knife and carved a ram's head out of it. It was pretty incredible. We shipped it home with his stuff. He was a woodworker and he built furniture for a place he and his girlfriend used to go to in Alabama. He was a very talented guy, fun to be with. He and I would watch movies and stuff together. He was easy to talk to on a professional and friendly basis."

King said Carver often spoke about his family while deployed. "He loved his niece and nephew, his brother's kids, he talked a lot about them," King said. "He had their pictures plastered all over his wall in his CHU (Containerized Housing Unit.) He was very proud of them. He always said "If I never have kids, that's fine, because they're mine." He was a proud uncle and cared very much for them."

The pilots said they still think of their friends every day. "I miss his company," King said of Carver. "I miss having somebody to talk with. He was a happy guy with a good attitude. He didn't curse, he was just a really great guy, I don't know how to put it. He was a great young American."

"In the short amount of time I knew him, I grew to like him a great deal. I miss him, there's not a day that goes by I don't think of him. His whole town turned out for his funeral. I think that speaks highly of him and his family. I think that sums it all up, says a great deal about you."

"It's hard," Barcley acknowledged emotionally. "I just felt like, family-wise and children-wise that I had a lot in common with Kyle. It's hard to not only lose a friend but to know his wife and his daughter are going through that also. He was a true friend to me and I continue to pray for his family."

• Date Taken: 07.06.2006
• Date Posted: 07.06.2006 13:39
• Story ID: 7076
• Location: US