Major Gilbert was my safety commander during this deployment. I will never forget him or the talks we had about our families. He was truly a wonderful man. Rest easy Sir
My mother went to high school In San angelo with troy and I recently heard the story and we went an visited him at Arlington national cemetery and I can't believe how much of a role model MAJ troy is an how we should all have as much courage and bravery as him
I was deployed with 1-7 CAV who responded to MAJ Gilbert's crash site in 2006. We were only there for a couple of weeks or so when it happened. Always felt like he was shot down due to how widespread the debris was. But with a plane crashing at that speed, you just never know. It was a wake up call for all of us who were on our first deployment, that sometimes things go wrong, things completely out of your control. A week later, when our troop was relieved, we lost SSG Mulhair to an IED in Baghdad as were leaving MAJ Gilbert's crash site. We searched and we searched and we searched. We beat ourselves up hard when we couldn't locate his body. We didn't want to leave until that task was accomplished. But orders are orders, and we had to leave that AO for another. I'm personally very sorry that we couldn't secure his body. The feeling that we left someone behind has always stuck with me. I know there was nothing we could do -- we weren't able to get to the crash site till hours later, as he had went down so far outside of our normal AO around Taji/Baghdad -- but it's still a bit haunting.
Major Gilbert was my safety commander during this deployment. I will never forget him or the talks we had about our families. He was truly a wonderful man. Rest easy Sir
My mother went to high school In San angelo with troy and I recently heard the story and we went an visited him at Arlington national cemetery and I can't believe how much of a role model MAJ troy is an how we should all have as much courage and bravery as him
I was deployed with 1-7 CAV who responded to MAJ Gilbert's crash site in 2006. We were only there for a couple of weeks or so when it happened. Always felt like he was shot down due to how widespread the debris was. But with a plane crashing at that speed, you just never know. It was a wake up call for all of us who were on our first deployment, that sometimes things go wrong, things completely out of your control. A week later, when our troop was relieved, we lost SSG Mulhair to an IED in Baghdad as were leaving MAJ Gilbert's crash site.
We searched and we searched and we searched. We beat ourselves up hard when we couldn't locate his body. We didn't want to leave until that task was accomplished. But orders are orders, and we had to leave that AO for another.
I'm personally very sorry that we couldn't secure his body. The feeling that we left someone behind has always stuck with me. I know there was nothing we could do -- we weren't able to get to the crash site till hours later, as he had went down so far outside of our normal AO around Taji/Baghdad -- but it's still a bit haunting.
Very sorry for you and your children. I have the highest respect for your husband, a true hero.