Colorado mom remembers son killed in military crash: "He was doing what he loved"
The Colorado family of 24-year-old Army Sergeant Cade Wolfe is remembering the young soldier after a military accident off Cyprus near claimed the lives of five Americans. Wolfe grew up in Mankato, MN, but his mother moved to Evergreen about a year ago.
"He loved it. It's always what he wanted to do as a child. Straight from junior high through high school he always knew he would join the army," said Wolfe's mother Julia Molden.
Wolfe was killed in an accident during a refueling exercise late Friday. The Department of Defense said there was an accident as the MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was refueling. It was about 30 miles off Cypress in the Mediterranean Sea.
Wolfe joined the Army in 2018. He learned how to repair Black Hawk helicopters and later moved to Fort Campbell, Kentucky where he became a crew chief.
"They were all very experienced. And older and very decorated too," said his mother of the crew he served with.
The military says there is nothing to indicate the aircraft was brought down by the enemy or hostile actions. So far, the body of Wolfe and the body of one of the other crew members have not been recovered.
"The hard part is the unknown. I hope they find Cade so we can have a proper burial for him and some closure," said Molden.
Wolfe grew up in a military family. His mother was an Army nurse for two years, where she met his biological father, who served in the 82nd Airborne. His brother Cooper is currently a staff sergeant in the Army serving at Fort Bragg. As a boy, Cade was destined for the military said his mother.
"Sweet kid. You know his older brother was very athletic and so he kind of switched from doing football... those kinds of things, to doing extreme sports."
He liked skateboarding, snowboarding and motorcycles. His hair was longer and maybe he didn't quite look like a kid who would join the army, but that's exactly what he did.
"You see the skateboarders and the snowboarders and you wouldn't think that's what they want to do, but he did. And went in got his buzz cut and off he went," said his mother.
He joined at 18 and served in Hawaii before moving to Fort Campbell and the 160th SOAR (Airborne).
In 2020, Cade married his wife Danielle in Hawaii. She, too, was a military veteran. The family will soon make arrangements as they wait for the recovery of his remains, thinking first of his wife as they remember Cade, the job he loved and his service to the country.
"Always. Always keep that in my heart that he was doing what he loved."
