Spokane Army officer killed in helicopter crash in Iraq

WASHINGTON  — The U.S. soldier who died of injuries in a helicopter crash in Iraq this week was a member of an elite special operations unit and had deployed nine times in support of the U.S. conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, officials said Tuesday.

Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 Taylor J. Galvin, 34, died Monday in Baghdad of injuries sustained when his helicopter crashed in the northern Iraqi city of Sinjar, the Pentagon said in a brief statement. It said he was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The 160th, known as the Night Stalkers, specializes in night operations and has been heavily engaged in wars in the Middle East since 2001.

The Pentagon provided no details about the helicopter crash in Sinjar, although officials had said on Monday that there were no indications it was caused by hostile fire. Officials said three others were injured in the crash.

Galvin was born in Phoenix, Arizona, according to U.S. Army Special Operations Command fact sheet. The Pentagon said his home of record at the time of his deployment from Fort Campbell was Spokane, Washington.

It said this was his ninth overseas deployment, including two for the 2003-2011 war in Iraq, three for the war in Afghanistan and four for Operation Inherent Resolve, which is the operation against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria that began in 2014.