Body of Schofield soldier returned to U.S. soil
An Army carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of Spc. Richard A. Essex Sunday, Aug. 19, 2012 at Dover Air Force Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense, Essex, of Kelseyville, Calif., died while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)
An Army carry team loads into a vehicle a transfer case containing the remains of Spc. Richard A. Essex Sunday, Aug. 19, 2012 at Dover Air Force Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense, Essex, of Kelseyville, Calif., died while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)
An Army carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of Spc. Richard A. Essex Sunday, Aug. 19, 2012 at Dover Air Force Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense, Essex, of Kelseyville, Calif., died while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)
Richard Essex, 23, a door gunner, was one of four Schofield Barracks-based crew members who were among the seven Americans and four Afghans killed in Thursday’s Black Hawk helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan.
The body of a helicopter gunner from Schofield Barracks killed in Afghanistan returned to U.S. soil Sunday.
An Army carry team took the flag-draped case containing the remains of Spc. Richard A. Essex off a transport plane at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
Essex, 23, is from Kelseyville, Calif. He was one of seven U.S. troops killed when a Black Hawk helicopter from a Schofield 25th Infantry Combat Aviation Brigade crashed in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan on Thursday. Three Afghan soldiers and a translator also died in the crash.
The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat reported that Essex’s parents, Marion and Brett Hopkins, of Kelseyville, flew to Delaware to meet the plane.
The family plans initially to hold a private service. A public military service will be held at 11 a.m., Sept. 1 at Kelseyville High School, Principal Matt Cockerton told the newspaper.
"He was a nice kid. A real positive kid," said Cockerton. "He was back here last year doing a recruiting assignment. He was very proud of what he’d accomplished."
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Mayme Dyslin, Essex’s aunt, told the Lake County News in California that her nephew was a "laid-back kid" who never caused problems.
"He was just a free spirit," she said.
The soldier played the bass guitar and was an artist and a published poet, Dyslin told the newspaper.
"He said he was doing good and he would be home in November," she said.
