A contract helicopter pilot was killed Wednesday afternoon during routine flight training at Fort Novosel. Another person was injured.
Despite some social media rumors to the contrary, no Fort Novosel funding or training will be halted or disrupted.
U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) sent a letter on Friday to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Army Secretary Christine Wormuth in which he expressed his disappointment regarding the continued cancellation of briefings scheduled to discuss the reported reprogramming of funds away from the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Novosel.
The two lawmakers responded Thursday to social media posts circulating online showing a screenshot of an email alleging the U.S. Department of Defense diverted $130 million of its $140 million training budget for the USAACE to aid Ukraine.
When the U.S. Department of Defense began renaming the nine Army installations named for Confederates soldiers, including Alabama’s Fort Rucker, it originally allocated $1 million to the effort. That figure quickly rose to $21 million, with the Army now expecting to pay $39 million for new signs, gates, patches and other changes.
A Safety Investigation Team from Fort Novosel, in Dale County, is leading the investigation into the collision of two U.S. Army helicopters in Alaska.