Colorado mother mourns loss of soldier killed in military helicopter crash off coast of Cyprus

A mother in Colorado is mourning the loss of a soldier killed in a military helicopter crash. On Monday, the Department of Defense confirmed the identities of the five soldiers who were killed during military aircraft training over the Mediterranean Sea.

The DOD says the soldiers were in an MH-60 Blackhawk conducting aerial refueling training Friday when the helicopter "experienced an in-flight emergency" that resulted in the crash. The DOD says there are no indications that the crash was caused by enemy or hostile actions.

Among the dead was 24-year-old Sgt. Cade Wolfe of Mankato, Minnesota. He graduated from Mankato East High School in 2018 and was well-loved in the community.

Wolfe grew up in Minnesota but his mother, Julia Molden, lives in Evergreen, Colorado. He and four others had been positioned on the Island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean in case evacuations became necessary from Israel or Lebanon. 

Molden told CBS News Colorado that Cade "loved, what he did," and being the parent of a military child she knows but she also knows the importance of what they do.

The U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center is investigating this crash. 

The other soldiers were identified as:

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Stephen R. Dwyer, 38 of Clarksville, Tennessee

Staff Sgt. Tanner W. Grone, 26, of Gorham, New Hampshire

Sgt. Andrew P. Southard, 27, of Apache Junction, Arizona

Chief Warrant Officer Shane M. Barnes, 34, of Sacramento, California