Fort Drum In Mourning

Chopper Crash In Afghanistan Kills 10 Soldiers From NY Military Base

(CBS/AP)  Tim Martin was driving onto Fort Drum when he heard the sobering news about a helicopter crash. He breathed a sigh of relief once he knew his wife was safe.

"I heard a helicopter went down, then they said where it went down," said Martin, whose wife is an Army military intelligence officer serving in Iraq.

Ten Fort Drum soldiers died in Afghanistan Friday evening when their CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter crashed during combat operations as part of a hunt for al Qaeda and Taliban militants believed to be hiding in the mountainous terrain of rugged and remote Kunar province.

CBS News consultant Jere van Dyk told CBS Evening News Sunday anchor Russ Mitchell that Kunar province is seeing a strong return of the Taliban.

In mid April, van Dyk says, the U.S. launched. Operation Mountain Lion with 2,500 Afghan and U.S. soldiers — the biggest operation in Afghanistan since the U.S. invaded in October 2001.

The helicopter fell into a ravine while conducting operations on a mountaintop landing zone, according to a statement from the U.S. military base in Afghanistan. The U.S. military said the helicopter was not downed by hostile fire and an investigation was under way.

The crash was the deadliest for U.S. forces in Afghanistan in a year, and was the deadliest for Fort Drum since March 11, 2003, when a chopper crash killed 11 soldiers.

Of the roughly 18,000 Americans serving in Afghanistan, about half are from the 10th Mountain Division, which is based at Fort Drum.

The military will not release the names of the dead soldiers until they have notified the families, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller.

And residents in this military community are anxiously waiting.

"Anytime something like this goes on, you're always worried: 'Who is it? How is it going to affect our students?' " says Charles Heck, a teacher in the community.

"We pray for our soldiers in harm's way," said Derek Parker, a 20-year Army veteran who has served twice in Iraq. "Everybody in our congregation has someone or knows someone that's across the water. That's the only thing we can do."

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, rescuers retrieved the bodies of the soldiers.

An investigation team was at the scene of the crash, said Lt. Tamara D. Lawrence, a spokeswoman for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan.

"The area was inaccessible to trucks and vehicles, so helicopters were used to retrieve the bodies," said Lawrence.

The helicopter crashed in the Chawkay district of Kunar, about 40 miles southwest of a large U.S. military base in the provincial capital of Asadabad. Asadabad is in a large valley surrounded by rugged, remote mountains.

Gen. Abdul Ghafar, the police chief of Kunar province, about 150 miles east of the capital Kabul, said military helicopters were flying back and forth between the U.S. base in Asadabad and the crash site, suggesting that the investigative process would be difficult.

Attacks have been on the rise in Afghanistan's southern and eastern provinces, where militants have been using suicide and roadside bombs more than ever.

The 10 deaths brought 5 the number of U.S. military personnel killed in Afghanistan to at least 25 this year, according to the Web site icasualties.org, which relies on Defense Department information.

At least 234 U.S. military personnel, including those killed Friday, have died in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the conflict, according to the Defense Department.