Relative: Copter Crash Victim Didn't Live In Md.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Department of Defense says one of the six Marines killed this week in the crash of a U.S. helicopter in Afghanistan is from Maryland, though his father-in-law says he has no ties to the state.
Military officials on Saturday identified Cpl. Jesse W. Stites, of North Beach in Calvert County, as among those killed. But Stites' father-in-law, Mark L. Schwalenberg, tells The Baltimore Sun that Stites grew up in Florida, went to high school there and never lived in Maryland. The town's mayor also says he knew no one by that name.
The Sun says another of the six was a Naval Academy graduate.
The CH-53D helicopter crashed Thursday in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand. Thursday's crash was the deadliest in Afghanistan since August.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
