06 AUG - CW5 David R. Carter, US Army - Fort Collins

The Patriot Guard Riders have been invited to stand in honor at the ten year anniversary Remembrance Service for CW5, David R. Carter, at the Grandview Cemetery, 1900 West Mountain Avenue, Fort Collins, 80521, at 11:00AM, on Friday, August 6, 2021.

This Service will include a "Flyover". 10:00AM - Stage at the Grandview Cemetery in Fort Collins 10:15AM - Mission Briefing 10:30AM - Form Flag Line at the Gravesite of CW5 Carter

West Mountain Avenue ends at the East Entrance to Grandview Cemetery. You will see a small office building on the right as you cross over a small bridge. Once across the bridge, take an immediate left turn and then an immediate right turn. You will go straight through two, four way intersections. At the second four way intersection, "cages" should turn either right or left and park there. CW5 Carter's grave is about 100 yards ahead, on the left, in the center of Area H. Bikes and trikes will park along the road, just east of the gravesite and the PGR members will form the Flag Line, just west of the bikes and trikes, along the road.

Thanks to Dick Bares for providing these detailed instructions.

Kathy "Rat" Goldstein will serve as Ride Captain. I will be honored to attend and will bring Flags. Jim Herstein 303-518-8790 jwherst@aol.com On August 6, 2011, a U.S. CH-47D Chinook military helicopter operating with the call sign Extortion 17 (pronounced "one-seven") was shot down while transporting an Immediate Reaction Force attempting to reinforce a Joint Special Operations Command unit of the 75th Ranger Regiment in the Tangi Valley in Maidan Wardak province, southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan. The resulting crash killed all 38 people on board – 23 US Navy SEALs, 2 United States Air Force Pararescue, 1 United States Air Force Combat Control Team member, 1 pilot and 2 crewmen of the United States Army Reserve, 1 pilot and 1 crewman of the United States Army National Guard, 7 members of the Afghan National Security Forces, including 1 Afghan interpreter, as well as a U.S. military working dog. At 31 U.S. military personnel killed, the shoot down of Extortion 17 represents the greatest single incident loss of U.S. lives in Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan. The Colorado National Guard dedicated its Army Aviation Support Facility, on Buckley Air Force Base, to CW5 Carter on August 6, 2013, the two year anniversary of his death. David R. Carter was born on July 12, 1964, at RAF Mildenhall, England. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve on December 23, 1983, and went on active duty to begin basic training in May 1984. SP4 Carter completed Military Police One Station Unit Training (OSUT) at Fort McClellan, Alabama, in September 1984, and he then served with the 346th Military Police Company of the U.S. Army Reserve at Hutchinson, Kansas, until he joined the Kansas Army National Guard on October 15, 1985. His next assignment was as a petroleum handling specialist with the 435th General Support Aviation Company at Salina, Kansas, from October 1985 until he was selected for Warrant Officer Training in July 1987. Carter was appointed a Warrant Officer in the Kansas Army National Guard and was designated a Rotary Wing Aviator on May 26, 1988, and then served as an OH-58 Kiowa scout pilot with the Kansas Army National Guard until he transferred to the Colorado Army National Guard on September 1, 1988. Chief Warrant Officer Carter served as an AH-1 Cobra pilot with Company C and then Company A, 2d Battalion of the 135th Aviation Regiment of the Colorado Army National Guard at Aurora, Colorado, from September 1988 to November 1996, followed by service as a UH-1 Iroquois and then CH-47 Chinook pilot and instructor pilot with Company B, 2d Battalion of the 147th Aviation Regiment at Eagle, Colorado, from November 1996 to December 2002. His next assignment was as a CH-47 instructor pilot with Detachment 1, Company E of the 168th Aviation Regiment at Aurora, Colorado, from December 2002 to November 2005, and then as a CH-47 instructor pilot with Detachment 1, Company B, 2d Battalion of the 135th Aviation Regiment at Aurora and then at Buckley AFB, Colorado, from November 2005 to until he was killed in action when his CH-47, call sign Extortion 17, was shot down by an enemy rocket propelled grenade on August 6, 2011. During this time, Chief Warrant Officer Carter had served on active duty in AGR status with the Colorado Army National Guard from April 2005 to March 2006, and from August 2007 to May 2011. He had been activated for service in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom from August 2006 to August 2007, and for service in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom from July 2011 until his death a month later. Chief Warrant Officer Carter was posthumously promoted to CW5. U.S. Army Reserve 1983-1985 Kansas Army National Guard 1985-1988 Colorado Army National Guard 1988-2011 Cold War 1983-1991 War on Terrorism 2001-2011 Iraq 2006-2007 Afghanistan 2011 (KIA)