Army Chief Warrant Officer 4 Keith Yoakum

Died February 2, 2007 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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41, of Hemet, Calif.; 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 Jason G. Defrenn.

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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 Keith Yoakum, 41, of Hemet, Calif., and Chief Warrant Officer 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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Apache pilot is 5th Hemet High graduate to die in Iraq

The Associated Press

HEMET, Calif. — Army pilot Keith Yoakum died doing what he loved to do — fly aircraft.

“He was one of those kids who all he wanted to do was fly. It was his passion. He lived to fly,” said Lloyd Cliff of Hemet-Ryan Aviation, where Yoakum was restoring a 1946 Fairchild single-engine military trainer.

Yoakum, a 41-year-old Army chief warrant officer, was killed Feb. 2 in Taji, Iraq, when the Apache helicopter he was in was forced down.

“He was doing exactly what he wanted to do. He will be missed,” Cliff said, noting that Yoakum got his pilot license at the airport in the 1980s and became a flight instructor.

Chief Warrant Officer Jason G. Defrenn, 34, of Barnwell, S.C., was also killed. The soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Cavalry Regiment, 1st Division, at Fort Hood, Texas.

Yoakum was the fifth Hemet High School graduate to die in Iraq since 2004.

“We’re saddened by the loss of another Hemet High grad,” Principal Bill Black said. “It leaves us speechless. It’s an awful lot for a small community. ... It’s more than our fair share.”

Yoakum moved to Alabama with his wife, Kelly, and their two children, a few years ago. His two brothers were finishing a landing strip there, where Yoakum planned to fly the Fairchild plane when he returned from the war.

But he kept in touch with his Riverside County friends.

Cliff said Hemet-Ryan Aviation considered Yoakum “one of the Hemet-Ryan Family” and the company always kept track of him, even while he was in Iraq.

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Army helicopter pilot remembered as model for others

FORT RUCKER, Ala. — Army helicopter pilot Keith Yoakum was remembered as a model for others who fly choppers in combat, protecting ground troops, as well as a loving father who looked forward to teaching his daughters to fly.

A memorial service for the 41-year-old chief warrant officer, who died Feb. 2 in Iraq while conducting combat air patrol, will be held Feb. 13 in the main post chapel at Fort Rucker. But recollections of his military career and his love of his family and flying were expressed in advance of the service.

“He made us all stand a little taller and be the best that we can be,” said his older brother, Mark Yoakum. “He wasn’t the wind beneath our wings, but he was our wings.”

Keith Yoakum, who lived at Coffee Springs in Geneva County, had moved to the Wiregrass region from Hemet, Calif. The family bought property near his two brothers, and had begun to build a hangar and grass landing strip.

“He was teaching his daughters [Katelynn, 16, and Kirstee, 14] how to fly,” his wife, Kelly Yoakum, told The Dothan Eagle in a story Feb. 12. “That was his dream, to own his own grass strip. Flying was his passion. And he loved his brothers and wanted to do as many things as possible together.”

“He was just such a good man,” she said. “He was a very good father. He was very proud of his daughters and with what little time he had he tried to give it to them.”

His twin brother, Kevin Yoakum, said he has received e-mails from soldiers around the world expressing condolences and sharing memories.

Rob Williams, who served with Keith Yoakum, said in an e-mail that “anyone who’s been flying Apaches for any length of time either knows [Yoakum] or knows of him. He’s the guy everyone wishes they could be.”

He died of wounds suffered when he was forced down in combat operations at Taji, Iraq. Chief Warrant Officer Jason G. Defrenn, 34, of Barnwell, S.C., was also killed. They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Cavalry Regiment, 1st Division, at Fort Hood, Texas.

Yoakum’s family said he died doing what he loved.

“I’m glad I came,” Yoakum wrote in an e-mail two days before his death. “I think I make a difference.”