Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 Eric W. Totten

Died May 5, 2006 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

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34, of Texas; assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum N.Y.; died May 5 when the CH-47 Chinook helicopter he was traveling on crashed during combat operations east of Abad, Afghanistan, in the Kunar province. Also killed were: Pfc. Brian M. Moquin Jr., Spc. David N. Timmons Jr., Spc. Justin L. O’Donohoe, Sgt. Jeffery S. Wiekamp, Sgt. John C. Griffith, Sgt. Bryan A. Brewster, Staff Sgt. Christopher T. Howick, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Christopher B. Donaldson, and Lt. Col. Joseph J. Fenty.

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Career pilot dies in Afghanistan copter crash

Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A St. Paul native joined the Army shortly after graduating from high school because he wanted to do something more with his life after losing a close friend to drugs and suicide, an older brother said.

Chief Warrant Officer Eric W. Totten, 34, died Friday with nine other soldiers when a helicopter fell into a ravine during a mountaintop landing in Kunar Province in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense said.

His death brings to 36 the number of people with close Minnesota ties to have died in connection with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Totten was a career Army pilot who had been in Bosnia and Iraq and was on his second tour in Afghanistan, his brother Noel, who lives in Bloomington, said Wednesday.

Noel Totten said there was a major change in his brother’s life after his friend died.