Granite Stater among those who died in E. Mediterranean chopper crash

Staff Sgt. Tanner W. Grone (U.S. Army Special Operations Command Public Affairs)

WASHINGTON - A New Hampshire man was one of five special forces members killed when their helicopter went down in the Eastern Mediterranean last weekend.
Staff Sgt. Tanner W. Grone, 26, died when a UH-60 helicopter went down during an air refueling mission as part of military training.
The others victims include Chief Warrant Officer 3 Stephen R. Dwyer, 38, of Clarksville, Tenn., Chief Warrant Officer 2 Shane M. Barnes, 34, of Sacramento, Calif.; Sgt. Andrew P. Southard, 27, of Apache Junction, Ariz.; and Sgt. Cade M. Wolfe, 24, of Mankato, Minn. They were all part of the Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment based at Fort Campbell, Ken.
The commander of the Army Special Operations Command, Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga, said all five "hail from rare patriotic families with deep military service ties that span multiple generations and formations."
"This is devastating news that reverberates across the entire Special Operations community," Braga said on Monday in a statement. "Every loss is tough, but in this case, service to the Nation is truly a family business and it's hard to express the amount of sorrow that we all feel right now."