Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jason G. Defrenn

Died February 2, 2007 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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34, of Barnwell, S.C.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; died Feb. 2 in Taji, Iraq of wounds sustained when his Apache helicopter was forced to land during combat operations. Also killed was Chief Warrant Officer Keith Yoakum.

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Two Fort Hood soldiers killed in copter crash

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Two soldiers assigned to Fort Hood were killed when their helicopter went down in Iraq, the Defense Department said.

Chief Warrant Officer 4 Keith Yoakum, 41, of Hemet, Calif., and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jason G. Defrenn, 34, of Barnwell, S.C., died Feb. 2, the military confirmed late Feb. 6.

Both soldiers were aboard an Apache helicopter that was forced to land during combat operations in Taji, an air base 12 miles north of the Iraqi capital. The al-Qaida-affiliated group the Islamic State of Iraq claimed to have brought down the helicopter, which crashed in a hail of gunfire north of Baghdad.

The two soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, at Fort Hood, Texas.

The helicopter crash is the ninth in Iraq since August 2006.

Officials are investigating the incident.

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Family of soldier killed in Iraq finds solace in newborn

By Meg Kinnard

The Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. — For weeks, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jason DeFrenn’s family awaited his homecoming, a trip planned as much more than a simple respite from his second tour in Iraq: The nine-year Army veteran was returning to South Carolina to help his wife give birth.

Instead, his loved ones are making plans for the 34-year-old Army pilot’s funeral. DeFrenn’s Apache helicopter was shot down Feb. 2 — two weeks before he was supposed to be back in his native state.

Wracked by grief, his wife went into labor early, giving birth to a boy just days after her husband’s death.

It’s newborn Christopher who’s now providing the family a measure of solace. “A healing child,” is how Jason DeFrenn’s father explains it as he alternately gazes at a photo of the son he lost, and at a card stamped with the footprints of his new grandson.

“It’s a wonderful thing that’s happened here in the last couple of days, in a way,” said Garth DeFrenn. “But it’s going to be a tough month.”

Twenty-three Marines and soldiers have died in helicopter crashes in Iraq since Jan. 20. Most, like DeFrenn, are believed to have been shot down. The latest, which killed five Marines and two sailors when their CH-46 helicopter crashed Feb 7, remains under investigation. Four American civilian contractors also were killed in a recent crash.

The deaths have raised questions about whether insurgents are using more sophisticated weapons or whether U.S. tactics need changing.

But in South Carolina, Jason DeFrenn’s family is focusing on the new baby and the boy’s three siblings, not how their father died. Garth DeFrenn coached Jenny DeFrenn through the delivery.

“I guess I tried to take Jason’s place a little bit,” Garth DeFrenn said. “I didn’t really take Jason’s place, but I was just trying to be there for her.”

“This is all about Jason and Jenny and those four children,” he said. “It started with him doing something very, very remarkable. It went to her regenerating life again.”

Jenny DeFrenn struggled at first with choosing a name for her infant, born four days after the crash. She decided on Christopher Andrew, the name that she and her husband had picked months ago, rather than naming him after his father.

“She always did what Jason wanted,” Garth DeFrenn said last week. “She always followed him and supported him.”

That support took the couple, who met while Jason DeFrenn was managing a Pizza Hut, from South Carolina to Texas, where he was based at Fort Hood after joining the Army nine years ago. He served one tour in Afghanistan before going to Iraq twice.

His father said the military gave DeFrenn the excitement he had sought as a boy while hunting and fishing near their hometown of 5,000 about 60 miles south of Columbia.

“When he was young, he had a spirit of wanting to be a hero,” Garth DeFrenn said. “He was one of those kids who wanted adventure.”

The DeFrenns are now making plans for Jason’s funeral in the small town of Barnwell. He’ll be buried in his family’s plot, as his father believes he would have wanted. The governor plans to grant a request to lower the state’s flags.

On an overcast afternoon last week, during a trip to visit his daughter-in-law and new grandson in a Columbia hospital, Garth DeFrenn walked through a city park that is home to dozens of memorials to war veterans. He paused on a footbridge to look out over the granite monuments and bronze sculptures, and broke into tears.

“I don’t think I’ll ever come back to this place,” he said. “No, I won’t ever come back.”

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Barnwell soldier killed in Iraq

The Associated Press

BARNWELL, S.C. — Army Warrant Officer Jason Garth DeFrenn of Barnwell was killed when a helicopter was shot down in Iraq last week, his family said.

The 34-year-old soldier was a member of the 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 227th Aviation Regiment, at Fort Hood, Texas, his father, Garth DeFrenn, said.

“He would have been home in a week or 10 days,” said Naomi DeFrenn, his stepmother.

DeFrenn’s Apache helicopter was shot down while flying in formation north of Taji, Iraq, the family said.

DeFrenn leaves behind a wife, Jenny, and three children, Alex, 15, Jessica, 10, and Michael, 5.

The family said Jenny DeFrenn went into labor Feb. 5 with the couple’s fourth child, two days after hearing about her husband’s death.

Garth DeFrenn said his newest grandson, Jason Garth DeFrenn Jr., was not due for another two weeks.

“She is beside herself,” the father said of his daughter-in-law. “She’s in misery and that’s the intent of these people [the Iraqi insurgents] — to break the will of the people. But they aren’t going to break the will of this little girl.”

“Whatever we think of this war, whatever we may think of the politics, my son believed if these people were not stopped, then our children and our children’s lives would be destroyed,” he said. “That’s why he re-enlisted for the third time. I think he knew in his heart that he wasn’t coming home.”

Garth DeFrenn said his son’s body was scheduled to be returned to Barnwell on Feb. 7.