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by Fiona G. Holter, USAICoE Staff Historian
23 JULY 1999
On 23 July 1999, the 204th MI Battalion lost five soldiers when an Airborne Reconnaissance Low (ARL) aircraft crashed in Putumayo, Colombia. The accident marked the first American deaths in an aviation accident while on a counterdrug mission in the Andean nations.
In 1993, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) received the Army’s first three Special Electronic Mission Aircraft (SEMA) ARL systems. These systems were low-profile, medium altitude reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft used to conduct imagery (IMINT) and communications intelligence (COMINT) missions. While initially the IMINT and COMINT systems were separate, the Army combined the two into a multi-sensor configuration (ARL-M, RC-7B) in 1996. Operators could use the systems together or separately to examine targets.
Throughout the mid-to-late 1990s, SOUTHCOM employed these platforms in counter-narcotic operations in Colombia. This included training the Colombian National Police and military to conduct effective counter-narcotic operations, as well as collecting, analyzing, and distributing essential information on drug cartels to units operating in the field. The Marine Corps commander of SOUTHCOM, General Charles E. Wilhelm, called the ARL RC-7B system a valuable asset for these missions. Its reliable imagery sensors allowed personnel “to downlink images in near-real time” and the imagery could be released to host nation and civilian personnel, “making [the aircraft] a significant contributor to the drug war.”
At 1:40 a.m. on 23 July 1999, five soldiers from the 204th MI Battalion and two Colombian airmen left Apiay, Colombia, to conduct a reconnaissance mission near the Ecuador border in the one-of-a-kind RC-7B. Unfortunately, an hour later the plane, piloted by Capt. Jennifer Odom and CWO2 Thomas Moore, crashed into a mountain in Putumayo, killing all seven personnel on board.
Captain Odom, an MI aviator, was a West Point graduate from Frederick, Maryland. At the age of twenty-nine, she had more than 2,000 hours of experience piloting military aircraft, including more than 600 hours in the RC-7B. Captain Odom was slated to become the commander of D Company, 204th MI Battalion, a few weeks later.
CWO2 Moore, the second mission pilot on the flight, was from Englewood, California, and had enlisted in the Army in 1988 after attending the U.S. Air Force Academy. He had served as a Bradley fighting vehicle commander in Operation DESERT STORM, after which he was selected as an MI warrant officer. He joined the 204th MI Battalion in 1996.
Capt. Jose “Tony” Santiago was an intelligence officer. The 37-year-old Florida native had enlisted in the Army in 1984 and was commissioned in 1991. He was commanding the Headquarters and Service Company, 204th MI Battalion, at the time of the crash.
The junior crew members onboard were Spec. Ray E. Krueger II and Pfc. T. Bruce Cluff. Specialist Krueger was an imagery analyst manning the RC-7B’s IMINT systems. Just twenty years old, the Kansan had enlisted immediately after graduating high school. Private Cluff, from Mesa, Arizona, had enlisted only two years earlier but had a reputation as a highly skilled intelligence analyst. His company commander later stated Cluff had been selected as mission supervisor because of his track record of exemplary performance. Private Cluff was posthumously promoted to specialist following the accident. Two Colombian military officers, Maj. Alfonso Murillo and Lt. Aponte E. Mesa, were also onboard.
Following the accident, Maj. Gen. Robert Noonan, U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command commander, stated, “these five patriots died performing our Army’s work in an effort to create a better, safer world for us and for generations of future Americans.”
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| Date Taken: | 07.21.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 07.21.2023 15:07 |
| Story ID: | 449765 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 937 |
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