Three soldiers killed in Black Hawk crash identified

The Minnesota National Guard released the names of three soldiers killed in a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crash on Thursday.

Chief Warrant Officer 2 James A. Rogers Jr., 28; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Charles P. Nord, 30; and Sgt. Kort M. Plantenberg, 28, all died in the helicopter crash approximately 16 miles southwest of St. Cloud, Minnesota.

All three soldiers were assigned to Company C, 2-211th General Support Aviation Battalion, which is based in St. Cloud.

The troops had returned from a nine-month deployment to Kuwait in May, according to their service records. From there, they provided aerial medical evacuation in support of the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Rogers enlisted in the Minnesota National Guard on June 5, 2009, as a field artillery specialist before becoming a warrant officer in 2013.

Nord enlisted in the Minnesota National Guard on Aug. 24, 2007, as an M1 armor crewman. He became a warrant officer in 2016. Nord leaves behind his wife, Kaley, two-year-old daughter, Lydia, and a child they have been expecting.

Plantenberg was preparing to start the state’s warrant officer program in March and then later attend flight school.

All three soldiers were born and raised in Minnesota.

The crash that took their lives occurred in a farm field in the central part of the state during a routine maintenance test flight, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said on the evening of the crash.

“As a veteran of the Minnesota Army National Guard, my heart breaks for the families, the friends and the fellow soldiers,” Walz said. “The coming days will be dark and difficult. The state of Minnesota stands ready to assist the families of our fallen heroes.”

Police block off a road leading to the scene of a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed in the woods near Marty, Minn., Dec. 5. (Renee Jones Schneider/Star Tribune via AP)

The crash is currently under investigation by a team from the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center at Fort Rucker, Alabama.