A 2004 Roosevelt High School graduate who joined the Army at 17 and loved his job as a helicopter pilot was one of four Schofield Barracks soldiers killed when their Black Hawk crashed in bad weather Thursday on a night flight in southern Afghanistan.
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Don C. Viray, 25, of Waipahu; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Nicholas S. Johnson, 27, of San Diego; Spc. Dean R. Shaffer, 23, of Pekin, Ill.; and Spc. Chris J. Workman, 33, of Boise, Idaho, died when the helicopter went down in Helmand province.
The soldiers were with A Company, 2nd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment, out of Wheeler Army Airfield, according to the Air Force’s Mortuary Affairs Operations, which oversees the return of fallen service members at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
"Once again, the tragedies of war have taken four from our Tropic Lightning division, all of them Hawaii heroes; one of them, Hawaii born," U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye said in a statement. "These brave Army airmen must never be forgotten. Their contributions to our nation and to our world’s security are beyond measurement. Having watched the death and injury of my brothers in arms, I understand too well what this loss means to their fellow soldiers and families. My thoughts and prayers are with them during this difficult time."
Inouye served in World War II, losing his right arm to a German rifle grenade.
At least two of the 25th Infantry Division soldiers, Shaffer and Workman, were previously identified by family and friends as being Hawaii-based.
A Stars and Stripes reporter at a combat memorial for the soldiers at Kandahar Airfield on Monday said the remembrance drew hundreds of soldiers who filled the seats inside and spilled out of a fabric clamshell structure.
Viray was described as a "push-up king" who entered a competition with another soldier to do 1,000 push-ups in the shortest amount of time.
"Funny enough, he didn’t like the ocean," Stars and Stripes reported friend and fellow chopper pilot Chief Warrant Officer 2 Justin Neal saying about Viray.
Neal added that "flying with him was a joy. He loved it."
Jim Spiri, a freelance photographer who lives in New Mexico, also saw that love of flying in Viray.
Spiri, who lived in Hawaii from 1990 to 1994 and again from 2001 to 2004 and worked for Blue Hawaiian Helicopters, recently was embedded in Afghanistan with a New Mexico National Guard medical evacuation helicopter unit.
Spiri flew with Viray, photographed him at the end of February at Forward Operating Base Edinburgh in Helmand province and conducted an audio interview with the soldier.
"He actually was the pilot on what’s called the ring route — which took me from (the bases) Kandahar to Delaram to Payne to Edinburgh and eventually to Dwyer, and then I stayed a couple of days at Dwyer and did an audio interview with him," Spiri said in an interview.
Spiri said he was impressed with Viray because he loved his job so much.
"He joined (the Army) when he was 17 years old. He was prior enlisted, and then he went to flight school in 2008," Spiri said. "He did a tour in Iraq. He just had such a positive aloha spirit."
Viray wanted to stay in the Army 20 years, and when and if he retired, he wanted to fly helicopters for the tour industry in the islands, Spiri said. Spiri said he wants to get his audio recording to Viray’s family.
Viray attended Waipahu High School his freshman through junior years, then went to Roosevelt for his senior year, said Waipahu High Vice Principal Corinne Fujieda.
"We just heard about it like about an hour ago," Fujieda said early Monday afternoon. "It’s very tragic."
Shaffer’s father, also named Dean, had said on his Facebook page that the family was to meet his son’s body Sunday at Dover Air Force Base.
Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. John Kirby said Friday it appeared that bad weather was the primary cause of the accident but that an investigation was continuing.
"They’re going to look at all factors, but right now it appears that weather was the principal cause," Kirby said.
Defense officials were not aware of any enemy fire reported in the area where the crash took place, he said.
The chief of the Garmsir district in southern Helmand province, Mohammad Qayum Gorbaki, said the helicopter was flying to the scene of a suicide bombing in his area when it crashed late Thursday because of bad weather, The Associated Press reported.
Four Afghan police officers were killed and seven others were wounded in the suicide attack on the checkpoint, AP reported.
The four deaths are the first for the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, whose 2,600 Hawaii soldiers deployed in January for a year in southern Afghanistan. The unit’s approximately 90 Black Hawk, Kiowa Warrior and Chinook helicopters also were shipped out.
