Lingering questions: Father still wonders why Army withheld truth about son’s death*

MERCEDES — After nearly three years, Ernest Galvan said he still wants to know why the U.S. Army withheld findings that show a helicopter pilot’s misconduct led to his son’s death in Afghanistan.

For four months, the Army told him that mechanical malfunction was suspected in the helicopter crash that killed Army Sgt. Daniel Lee Galvan, 30, in August 2004, Ernest Galvan said.

“They led us to believe it was mechanical malfunction,” said Ernest Galvan, a Mercedes native who retired from the Army as a master sergeant.

Then in December 2004, Army officials told his son’s widow that an investigation found pilot Darrin R. Rogers flew a stunt that crashed the Black Hawk helicopter, he said.

“That was probably the second worst day in my life,” Galvan said from his home in Moore, Okla. “The worst was when I lost my son.”

Army officials who could be reached said they could not comment on Ernest Galvan’s claim that they withheld findings that showed pilot misconduct led to his son’s death.

But Lt. Col. Robert Tallman said such investigations take about four months to complete.

“(I)t was probably a reasonable amount of time given the circumstances,” Tallman, an Army spokesman, wrote in an e-mail from the Pentagon.

As a boy in Mercedes, Daniel Lee Galvan wanted to join the Army, part of a long family tradition, his father said. But he dreamed of becoming a pilot, he said.

On Aug. 12, 2004, Daniel Lee Galvan worked as a crew chief as Rogers piloted the Black Hawk to demonstrate for 11 Marines the speed with which the helicopter carried troops into battle.

As Rogers soared the helicopter over hills in eastern Afghanistan, the Marines urged him to “fly hard,” according to reports. The first time, there was a refusal from the cockpit. The second time, the cockpit called out, “You asked for it,” according to reports.

After Rogers crested the Black Hawk over a 400-foot hill, he suddenly nosed the helicopter into a steep dive that left the crew feeling weightless. As the helicopter plunged, the force lifted a wheel chock from the floor, hurling it into the cockpit and jamming the controls.

When Rogers couldn’t pull out of the dive, the helicopter plunged to the ground.

The crash killed Daniel Lee Galvan, injuring the Marines along with the Black Hawk’s co-pilot and a second crew chief.

To Daniel Lee Galvan, Rogers, 37, a chief warrant officer 3, was his “mentor,” said Nelda Galvan, his mother.

“That’s what hurts me so much,” she said. “He looked up to Mr. Rogers. He wanted to emulate Mr. Rogers. He trusted Mr. Rogers with his life.”

At his court martial May 5, 2005, Rogers pleaded guilty to negligent homicide, reckless endangerment, destruction of property and failure to obey orders.

When Judge Col. Debra Boudreau asked Rogers if he was showing off when he crashed the helicopter, he said, “Yes, ma’am, basically I was trying to impress the guys in the back.”

The judge had sentenced Rogers to 50 months in prison.

But under a plea bargain, Rogers was sentenced to 120 days at Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas. As part of the deal, he was forced to retire but held on to his military pension.

“I feel betrayed,” Ernest Galvan said. “I feel my son did not receive justice. I took that as a personal insult against me and my family, that that’s all my son’s life was worth — 120 days.”

But Ernest Galvan said he won’t condemn the Army like the family of Pat Tillman, the football star who was killed in Afghanistan in April 2004. In Tillman’s case, the Army withheld from the family investigation findings that showed friendly fire killed the Army Ranger.

“I have no animosity toward the Army. The Army was my life for over 24 years,” Ernest Galvan said. “This is not the Army that kept this away from me. Maybe regulations did. Maybe they need to be changed.”

After his son’s death, Ernest Galvan still stands strong behind the U.S. mission in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last October, he was proud when his niece and nephew, Natalie and Jaime Galvan, left Harlingen for a yearlong tour of duty in Iraq, he said.

“It does not change my opinion or what I believed — before or since — of our military job in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Galvan said, referring to his son’s death.

As a boy in Mercedes, Daniel Lee Galvan wanted to join the Army to become a pilot, said Jaime Garza, his uncle and godfather.

“He said, ‘I’m going to be a pilot, uncle. That’s what I want,’” Garza said from his Mercedes home. “That was his dream. To me, his goal in life was to serve his country.”

But Daniel Lee Galvan never got his pilot’s wings. Instead, he served as a helicopter crew chief, the man who maintained the $6 million Black Hawk.

In Lubbock, his widow Sonya Galvan said it’s time to put her husband “to rest.”

“He finally got his wings,” said Sonya Galvan, the mother of his two stepchildren. “He always wanted to fly and he finally got his wings, because he’s an angel.”

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* THE FOLLOWING CLARIFICATION RAN ON PAGE A2 OF THE VALLEY MORNING STAR ONE DAY AFTER THE ORIGINAL PRINT PUBLICATION (MAY 21, 2007) OF THE STORY ABOVE:

CLARIFICATION

A clarification is in order for a story from Page A1 Monday about the aftermath of an August 2004 helicopter crash in Afghanistan that killed Sgt. Daniel Lee Galvan.

One sentence in the story's continuation on Page A7 contrasts Sgt. Galvan's father's attitude toward the U.S. Army with that of the family of Pat Tillman, the former football star killed by friendly fire that same year in Afghanistan.

Ernest Galvan told the Star on Monday he did not compare himself directly with the Tillman family, which has leveled charges of a cover-up in that case. Galvan told the Star that although some people think he should make "a big issue" out of his son's case, he does not wish to do so.

Galvan said he supports the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and Iraq.