RAMADI (Iraq), Nov 2:

A US helicopter crashed in the area of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, on Wednesday killing two Marines, the US military said. The AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter crashed at around 8:15am and both crewmen were killed, a statement added.

Witnesses said US air strikes hit the area shortly afterwards and a doctor in Ramadi, Taled Dulaimi, said 35 people were killed in strikes near where the helicopter had come down.

There was no independent confirmation of casualties. A US military spokesman in Baghdad said he had no immediate information on operations in Ramadi after the crash.

US commanders have frequently accused local doctors in western Iraq of misrepresenting casualty figures.

Witnesses said the helicopter had come under fire from the ground before it crashed. “The cause of the crash is under investigation,” the US statement said.—Reuters
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Published November 4, 2005

Ypsilanti Marine killed in helicopter crash in Iraq

Midday update

Associated Press

YPSILANTI - A 38-year-old Marine pilot from Michigan and his co-pilot from Virginia were killed when their helicopter crashed near Ramadi, Iraq, the Pentagon and family members say.

Maj. Gerald M. Bloomfield II of Ypsilanti and Capt. Michael Martino, 32, of Fairfax, Va., were aboard an AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter that crashed Wednesday, the Defense Department said in a news release.

Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed Thursday that it shot down a U.S. attack helicopter near Ramadi.

The helicopter crashed during daylong fighting Wednesday in the insurgent stronghold 70 miles west of Baghdad. Besides the two crewmen, an American lieutenant died when a bomb exploded as he was rushing to the crash site.

The authenticity of the statement could not be determined. It appeared on an Islamic Web site and bore the nickname of the group's spokesman, Abu Maysara al-Iraqi.

The U.S. military said the cause of the crash was undetermined but said witnesses reported seeing what they thought was firing at the helicopter before it broke into pieces and crashed.

Bloomfield and Martino were with the Marine Light-Attack Helicopter Squadron 369, Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Bloomfield joined the ROTC while a student at Eastern Michigan University because military service gave him the opportunity to live out his love for education and the armed forces, his father, Gerald Bloomfield, told the Detroit Free Press.

The Michigan Marine volunteered for a third tour in Iraq because "it was worth fighting for," his father quoted him as saying.

"He strongly believed in what he was doing," stepmother Judy Bloomfield told The Detroit News.

"He wasn't afraid. He wanted to fight for his country."

The father said he last spoke to his son a week ago when the Marine called him at work.

"He said, 'I fly high and try not to get hit,'" the father said. "I told him I loved him and to stay safe."

Bloomfield was born in Detroit, graduated from Fowlerville High School in 1984 and from Eastern Michigan in 1988.

He also earned a master's degree in electrical engineering, his family said.

Bloomfield also is survived by wife Julie and 13-year-old son Ryan.

Bloomfield is at least the 67th member of the U.S. armed forces with known Michigan ties to die in Iraq.
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Fairfax Marine Captain Dies in
Helicopter Crash in Iraq

By Clarence Williams
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 4, 2005; B06

As a longtime Washington Redskins fan, Marine Capt. Michael D. Martino admired former cornerback Darrell Green, a player who lacked size but had the tenacity to always make the play.

The Fairfax resident showed similar determination, whether on the high school football field or in studying for his economics degree, said his older brother, Robert M. Martino. "We used to call him the Flea. He was always one of the smallest guys on the field, but he always made up for it with his guts," Robert Martino said last night.

Michael Martino displayed that courage and dedication most fully, his relatives said, in his career as a Marine Corps helicopter pilot.

Martino and another Marine officer were killed Wednesday near Ramadi in Iraq when their AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter crashed as they flew a support mission, Department of Defense officials said yesterday.

The Defense Department said in a statement that the cause of the crash is under investigation.
Associated Press Television News quoted an Iraqi as saying he saw insurgents shoot down the helicopter.

Martino, 32, was serving his second tour of duty in Iraq as a member of a light attack helicopter squadron out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.

As a teenager in Southern California, he would ride his bike to the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in search of pilots to talk to or planes to watch, family members said. He spent many weekends going to military air shows, where he would be the first to arrive and the last to leave.

"My son, from the day he was a little kid, he wanted to fly," said his father, Robert A. Martino. A Marine Corps career grew alongside that dream.

High school friend Scott Tarlo described a meticulous person who would spend months building a model airplane and hours talking about fixing car engines or wiping down "his baby," a Corvette. His sense of drive took him through junior college, university and summers in officer candidate school, Tarlo said.

"He was the epitome of the self-made person," Tarlo said. "He was definitely a scrapper and worked for everything he had."

His parents moved to Fairfax City about 13 years ago, and Michael Martino followed after graduating from the University of California at San Diego. The Washington area became his home, and he entered the Basic School at Quantico Marine Corps Base for officer training in 1993.

During his first tour, as the Marines pushed to rid Fallujah of insurgents in April 2004, Martino served not in the air, but on the ground as a forward air controller. He called in airstrikes on enemy positions, and his actions during that campaign earned him a Navy Commendation Medal. His family hopes the honor will be raised to a Bronze Star.

"This guy brought all hell down on the Iraqi insurgents. . . . He saved a lot of Marines, and he killed a lot of bad guys," said retired Lt. Col. Gary Lambertsen, a family friend.

Lambertsen knew Martino for only a couple of years, but he believed that the flight hours and combat experience he logged put Martino on a fast track to rise within the Marine Corps. "He saw just a tremendous amount of combat for someone of his age and his grade," Lambertsen said.

Martino is survived by his mother, father, brother and a sister and two nieces.

Martino was the second fatality from the Fairfax area in recent days. Last week, Pfc. Dillon Miles Jutras of Fairfax Station died during operations in Iraq's Anbar province.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company