Pentagon confirms Mainer was pilot in deadly helicopter crash

WATERVILLE – After some initial confusion, the Pentagon has confirmed that Maj. Jay Aubin of Maine was the pilot of a helicopter when it crashed last week in a sandstorm in Kuwait.

Aubin, who was at the controls with Capt. Ryan Anthony Beaupre of Illinois, was flying the CH-46E Sea Knight helicopter when it went down, according to a statement issued by the Marines on Wednesday.

Both were Marine helicopter pilots: Aubin was based in Yuma, Ariz.; Beaupre was based at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

They were killed along with two other U.S. Marines, including another with ties to Maine. Eight British soldiers also died in the crash, which occurred about nine miles from the Iraqi border.

Aubin, a captain who had qualified as major and was promoted posthumously, grew up in Skowhegan. The mother of another victim, Cpl. Brian Kennedy of Houston, lives in the seaside community of Port Clyde.

At the Pentagon, Marine Maj. Matt McLaughlin said the investigation has not been completed. “We take the investigation seriously. We continue to fight a war and look into the events surrounding the mishap,” he said.

Aubin trained pilots from the Marine Corps and other military services as part of the Marine Aviation and Tactics Squadron-1 in Yuma, where he had been stationed since June 2002. He deployed a month ago.

Gov. John Baldacci has ordered U.S. and Maine flags to be flown at half-staff Saturday in remembrance of Aubin and Kennedy, who were among the first military personnel to die in the war with Iraq.

A memorial for Aubin was scheduled for Saturday morning at the St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Winslow, home of his mother, Nancy Chamberlain.