From the Archives: High winds force Marine choppers down in Marfa

February 15, 1996

MARFA — A sudden winter windstorm forced down two U.S. Marine Corps helicopters in a Marfa residential area Saturday night. A third chopper landed at the Marfa airport. All aircraft touched down without incident, and there were no injuries to the three pilots and five crew members. 

Many Marfa residents said they heard the roar of the aircrafts’ engines and the “whop whop

whop” of the rotor-blades cutting the air as the two helicopters — a Huey command-control ship and a Cobra gunship attack craft made two approaches over town to find a place to land: a pasture at Dr. Steve Seegers home, near the MAC building. Another Cobra landed at the airport, which is located three miles north of town.

The expedition force apparently was heading back to their base on a Davis Mountains ranch from a night sortie along the border when they got caught in high winds and diminishing visibility at about midnight Saturday. The National Weather Service at Midland said Marfa’s automated weather station registered a peak wind gust of 46 mph at 12:15 a.m. Sunday, with constant winds of 30 mph to 38 mph.

Reports indicated that visibility was down to one-quarter mile at times due to blowing dust. “It was pretty interesting,” Seegers said of Saturday night. “My wife looked out the window and said something to the effect, ‘Do you know what just landed in our yard?’” He said he called his neighbor, Border Patrolman Ernest Carrillo, to ask him what was going on and Carrillo said the patrol’s chopper doesn’t fly at night. He said he called the Presidio County Sheriffs Office dispatcher, who told him it was a private helicopter and that it was taking off immediately.

“It was very noisy when they flew right over our house,” Seegers said. “It seemed strange for them to be flying at night. At first I thought it was foul play.”

About 50 Marines and several aircraft from Camp Pendleton, Calif., are on training maneuvers in Far West Texas, said Maureen Bossch, public affairs officer for Joint Task Force 6 (JTF-6) in El Paso.

The mission began Friday and runs through the end of February. “It’s night-flying training using night-vision devices,” Bossch said. “This is unfamiliar terrain for them. They usually train on a military installation but the challenge is not there. This gives them a real challenge.” JTF-6 is a military organization that coordinates and interfaces operations with civilian law enforcement agencies for drug interdiction efforts as well as coordinating training exercises for the four U.S. military branches, Bossch said. She said a “command element” of the training force has set up headquarters at Fort Bliss and Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso. A remote staging area is located on a ranch in the Davis Mountains.

“High winds and dust made it hard to navigate,” Bossch said of the choppers forced down Saturday night. Asked why the two choppers touched down inside the city limit instead of a field outside of town, Bossch said the pilots were looking for the “closest place to land. This is just a training mission. It’s not worth risking Iives for.” 

“They got caught in high winds, put on their lights and planted them,” said a Marine guarding the Seegers’ pasture Sunday morning.

He said the pilots used night-vision goggles to assist in the landings. “They put them right where they wanted them,” the Marine said, noting that the Cobra is an $18 million aircraft. Seegers said he chatted with the guards Sunday and they told him there was some sensitive equipment on board the helicopters.

The Seegers baked cookies for the three guards at their pasture, and Presidio County Sheriff Abe Gonzalez stopped by to inspect the situation and to invite the guards to the sheriff’s office for breakfast. Two of the guards took Gonzalez up on the offer. Winds had died down by Sun- day afternoon and the two choppers took off from the Seegers’ pasture at about 2:30 p.m.

The U.S. Border Patrol is assisting the Marines in their training maneuvers, said Jerry Agan, Marfa Sector deputy chief patrol agent. He said the military apparently chose the Big Bend area for its maneuvers because the terrain is “a lot like the Middle East.”

If soldiers spot any suspicious movements near the border, they radio Border Patrol agents, Agan added. Agan said the Mexican Army currently has troops on their side of the Rio Grande from Boquillas to west of Ojinaga, but Bossch said the training exercise has nothing to do with them.