Marine pilot from Big Bear City dies in Iraq

Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell, Staff Writer
San Bernardino County Sun
Article Launched:02/10/2007 01:00:00 AM PST

BIG BEAR CITY - Every day during his tour of duty in Iraq, 1st Lt. Jared Landaker flew casualty evacuation missions in dangerous combat zones in al-Anbar Province.

After months of performing the grueling work, he stopped looking back at the wounded young men and women being loaded onto his helicopter. It was too upsetting, said his mother, Laura Landaker.

Still, when he called his family from Iraq, the 25-year-old Marine Corps pilot who loved to fly sounded upbeat.

Landaker's calls home ended this week when he and six crew members and passengers died Wednesday in a helicopter crash outside Baghdad.

"We heard early that morning a CH-46 had gone down and it was worrying when we didn't get an e-mail from him afterward," his mother said. "About 4:15 p.m., three Marines knocked on the door.

"You know when you see them what they are there for."

The CH-46 helicopter Landaker was piloting had picked up a wounded Marine in Karbala, Iraq, and was taking him to a hospital when a support helicopter crew saw fire in the back.

The helicopter spun around twice and crashed on its left side. Everyone inside burned to death, the pilot's mother said.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation.

Landaker had been in Iraq since August with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 364, nicknamed the "Purple Foxes," said his mother.

He was slated to come home on leave next week because he was chosen to take a specialized weapons and tactical training class in Yuma, Ariz.

He would have returned to Iraq in February 2008.

Landaker was raised in Big Bear City by his father, a retired California Highway Patrol officer, and his mother, who builds "spec" houses.

He liked flying in private planes, playing baseball and football and hitting the local ski slopes.

"He hated fishing, but loved skiing and snowboarding, and as a kid was always walking around with a mitt on his hand," said his mother.

He played varsity baseball and excelled in football at Big Bear High School. He was an all- CIF defensive back in 1998.

"He was a standout football player and a standout person," said Dave Griffith, the high school's head football coach. "All the kids around here looked up to him as a role model."

Joe Bradley, physics teacher and baseball coach at Big Bear High, said he had never coached a kid with more heart or courage.

The two remained close after he graduated, and Bradley saw him grow into a young man with great integrity.

"He would tell jokes and laugh, but he always stood up for what he believed in," he said.

After high school graduation, Landaker went on to study physics at the University of La Verne.

He was studying at the college when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks took place. He decided he wanted to fly jets in the Marine Corps, said his mother.

"He always aspired to fly, and after 9/11 he felt like he needed to do his part," she said. "His decision kind of blew us away. We thought he'd end up a fireman or coach."

He enlisted in the Marines after graduating from the university in 2003 and was sent to boot camp for officers in Quantico, Va.

Landaker was subsequently chosen for the flight program and went to Pensacola, Fla., to do flight training in T-34s, fixed-wing trainers.

He graduated at the top of his class and decided to fly helicopters.

After his deployment to Iraq in August, his mother did her part for the troops, organizing groups to visit wounded veterans at the Wounded Warrior Center at Camp Pendleton and the Naval Hospital in Balboa.

Now she is waiting for her son's body to come home and planning his funeral. A date has not yet been set for the memorial service.

Her grief is shared by the Big Bear Lake community.

"If there was a good reason to walk through fire, and you asked Jared to do it, he would," said Bradley. "He was a patriot who truly believed it was his job to save American lives."

Contact writer Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell at (909) 386-3879 or via e-mail at deborah.pfeiffer@sbsun.com.

Copyright © 2007 Los Angeles Newspaper Group

Marine pilot from Big Bear City dies in Iraq

Anbar province: The Big Bear City resident flew medical-evacuations missions.

11:44 AM PST on Friday, February 9, 2007

By PAUL LAROCCO
The Press-Enterprise

Flying a Marine helicopter through insurgent-heavy pockets of Iraq didn't faze Jared Landaker, even with reports of enemy ground-to-air attacks on the rise.

"He felt real confident that the way they were flying, they could get in and get the downed Marines back out safely," said his mother, Laura Landaker. "His spirits were always really good, every time I talked to him."

Family remembered that devotion and optimism Thursday, a day after learning that the 25-year-old Marine Corps pilot from Big Bear City -- set to return home next week -- was one of seven killed in a helicopter crash northwest of Baghdad.

Landaker was a first lieutenant with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 364, nicknamed the "Purple Foxes." As a medevac pilot, his role was to airlift wounded Marines out of dangerous combat zones in Anbar province.

That's what he was doing Wednesday, his family said, when his helicopter went down in flames. The Department of Defense hasn't officially identified the five Marines and two Navy corpsmen who died or stated the cause of the crash.

Witnesses and Iraqi military personnel, however, said it appeared the aircraft was shot down, and if so, it would be the sixth in the past three weeks. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway said Thursday that the trend shows a troubling "intensity of effort" from insurgents.

In frequent e-mails to his mother, Landaker didn't express fear, she said Thursday. Rather, he spoke of the good he felt his unit was doing, rescuing the wounded, and his upcoming leave from Iraq.

"He felt he was providing a service," Laura Landaker said.

In the year before Landaker was scheduled to return to Iraq, he had planned a trip to Brazil and had been chosen for a specialized weapons and tactical training class in Yuma, Ariz.

The Big Bear High School graduate entered the Marine Corps in 2003 after completing his physics degree at the University of La Verne. After stints in Virginia and at a Florida flight school, Landaker was deployed to Iraq last August from Camp Pendleton.

"He wanted to be there, and he knew he was doing the right thing," said Brooke Wagner, a San Bernardino County sheriff's sergeant and longtime family friend. "He knew he wanted to be a part of fighting there so it wouldn't come here."

Laura Landaker said she spent Wednesday on edge after hearing of the crash on the morning news. Her husband, Joe, a Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, sought confirmation to no avail.

About 4 p.m., three uniformed Marines came to the door.

While her son was overseas, Laura Landaker began organizing groups of friends and supporters to visit wounded Marines and sailors stationed at San Diego-area military hospitals. She said it was her way of supporting her son's efforts, and she plans to continue by organizing a 5K run to raise funds for Marine care-package charities.

"He was such a true, committed person, whatever he put his mind to," Laura Landaker said. "Such a patriotic guy. He wore the uniform so proudly."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reach Paul LaRocco at 909-806-3064 or plarocco@PE.com

© 2007 Press-Enterprise Company

PHOTO CAPTION: Greg Vojtko / The Press-Enterprise
Laura Landaker displays several quilts Wednesday in Big Bear City that she and others have made for wounded Marines. She and her friends have made quilts and delivered them to recovering Marines in San Diego-area hospitals.


Wounded Warriors

Inland group visits Marine, Navy casualties of Iraq war

10:00 PM PST on Tuesday, January 16, 2007

By PAUL LAROCCO
The Press-Enterprise

Laura Landaker read the e-mails from her son in Iraq, learning of the Marines with no shaving cream, no batteries and -- most significantly to her -- no one to even write them a short letter.

Gathering donations for a care package that would go from her Big Bear City home to Jared's helicopter squadron in Anbar province was easy enough. But to offer more support and thanks, Landaker and her closest friends decided to offer their thank-yous face-to-face, where the Marines could look them directly in the eye.

With her husband, who is a retired California Highway Patrol officer -- and with friends from the Riverside County district attorney's office, San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and the U.S. Forest Service -- Landaker identified San Diego-area hospitals caring for wounded Marines and sailors.

The group of husbands, wives and children took 40 handmade quilts and boxes of baked goods and formed a caravan to San Diego, where they spent a recent afternoon at two military rehabilitation centers.

"Their morale is low because they're almost forgotten," she said her son told her about some of the Marines in Iraq. "And since we can't go over there, we thought we'd do this, and let them see they weren't forgotten."

The visit went so well that Landaker is now planning several more this year to Camp Pendleton's new Wounded Warrior Center, and the clinic at the Naval Medical Center San Diego. She also is in the early stages of planning a fundraising 5K run at Big Bear Lake to support Marine care-package effort.

"When she puts her mind to something, she absolutely follows through," said Landaker's friend, Gloria McNulty, who along with her husband, a retired Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, visited the wounded. "Rather than just do something for you own child, she's the type of person that wants to affect others' lives as well."

Jared Landaker, 25, joined the Marines after studying physics at the University of La Verne, and is now a first lieutenant and helicopter pilot in Iraq. Since deploying in August, he has been flying medical evacuation missions, airlifting Marines wounded in combat, his mother said.

The ones who end up in the San Diego hospitals are often considered too injured to return to service, but Landaker and the other visitors said the troops had positive attitudes.

"Every single one of them wants to go back to Iraq, back to their unit, back to doing what they were trained to do," said Clay Hodson, chief investigator for the Riverside County district attorney.

Hodson, who helped his wife, Linda, sew Marine and American flag blankets for the trip, said the visitors in law enforcement could relate to that mentality.

"They kind of had that brotherhood culture," Hodson said. "Probably even more than we do."

A spokeswoman with the Naval Medical Center San Diego said visitors are common to their rehabilitation facility, where wounded Marines and sailors receive physical and mental care for a transition back into civilian life.

"It's a wonderful thing for the service members who are recovering to know they are being thought of," said Amy Rohlfs, a public affairs officer.

The wounded whom Hodson spoke with were quiet at first, but eventually began opening up, showing their scars and telling stories, he said.With their family and friends in other parts of the country, there were some who don't see many visitors.

"They said lots of people thank us and send us gifts and things," said Brooke Wagner, a San Bernardino County sheriff's sergeant in charge of crimes against children. "But for someone to come there and personally see them, it just meant so much to them."

Reach Paul LaRocco at 909-806-3064 or plarocco@PE.com

combat casualties

Anyone interested in visiting troops at the following military hospitals may call:

Camp Pendleton Wounded Warrior Center: 760-725-9805

Naval Medical Center San Diego: 619-532-9666, ask for Wounded Warrior Clinic

© 2007 Press-Enterprise Company

U.S.: Crashed Copter Was Shot Down in Iraq
By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer
12:16 AM PST, February 14, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A Sea Knight helicopter that crashed last week northwest of Baghdad was shot down, the U.S. military said Wednesday, reversing earlier statements that it appeared to have been due to mechanical failure.

The Marine CH-46 troop transport went down northwest of Baghdad on Feb. 7, killing all seven people on board, and an al-Qaida-linked Sunni group claimed responsibility and aired a video.

Military officials initially said they believed the crash was due to mechanical failure, but the military announced Wednesday that an investigation showed the crash was "the result of anti-aircraft munitions."

"Initial evidence indicated that the CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter went down as a result of mechanical failure. After further investigation using all available means, the cause of the incident has been confirmed to be hostile fire," said Maj. Jeff Pool, a spokesman for the Multi National Force -- West.

The statement said the pilots of an AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter escorting the Sea Knight did not witness the actual attack, but they saw the fire, descent and subsequent crash. The initial signs resembled fires that have occurred aboard CH-46s experiencing mechanical difficulties in the past, it added.

The military also said the crash site had been cleared with explosives after the remains and equipment were removed "to ensure the enemy could yield no gain from the debris."

At least seven U.S. helicopters have crashed or been forced down under hostile fire since Jan. 20. In the wake of the recent crashes, U.S. officials have said they were reviewing flight operations and tactics but maintain there is no evidence of sophisticated new weapons used in any of the latest attacks.

Wednesday's statement raised to five that were known to have been shot down. Two private security company helicopters also have crashed but the cause was unclear.

The military statement declined to comment on insurgents weapons' capabilities or tactics to counter them, citing security concerns.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of these fallen service members," Pool said. "All available resources are dedicated to eliminating the threat to our aircraft so that we can continue to provide the support our ground forces."

The Islamic State in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iraqi insurgent groups that includes al-Qaida in Iraq, claimed responsibility for downing the helicopter and issued an Internet video on Feb. 9 it said was proof. The group also claimed the recent downings of two other U.S. helicopters.

The two-minute video showed a helicopter that appears to be a Sea Knight flying. An object trailing smoke is seen in the sky nearby, then the craft bursts into orange and red flames, with a spray of debris emerging from it.

Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times