BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi state television on Monday showed two men said to have been the U.S. crew of an Apache helicopter forced down during heavy fighting in central Iraq.
Gen. Tommy Franks, the U.S. war commander, confirmed that one helicopter did not return from its mission Sunday and that its two-man crew was missing. The men were identified as Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young Jr., 26, of Lithia Springs, Ga., and Chief Warrant Officer David S. Williams, 30, of Orlando, Fla.
If confirmed, the airmen would be the second set of POWs displayed by the Iraqis in as many days. On Sunday, the Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera carried Iraqi television footage of five U.S. soldiers who were captured near An Nasiriyah, a crossing point over the Euphrates River.
Unlike those soldiers, the men shown Monday did not appear to be injured.
The two wore cream-colored pilots’ overalls and did not speak to the camera but appeared confused. They turned their heads and looked in different directions while being filmed. One of the men sipped from a glass of water, looking wary but not cowed.
The contents of one man’s wallet were displayed across a table, including a Texas driver’s license, a card from the Fort Hood National Bank, phone cards and credit cards.
A spokesman at the U.S. Army Post in Fort Hood, Texas, said that a helicopter from its 1st Battalion of the 227th Aviation Regiment was missing in action in Iraq.