For soldier killed in Alaska crash 'family was everything'

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The mother of one of the three soldiers killed last week when two U.S. Army helicopters collided in a remote part of Alaska said her son loved his country and his family and lifted others up. “Family was everything to him,” Stacie Weaver told The Associated Press Monday of her son, Warrant Officer 1 Stewart Duane Wayment, of North Logan, Utah, who leaves behind a wife, Kiara, and three young children. Two helicopters from the 1st Attack Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment at Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks, collided Thursday about 50 miles east of Healy when they were returning from training, the Army has said. Pennell has said that there were “no weather or visual constraints known of at the time of the collision.” The Army on Friday grounded aviation units for training after the crash, which occurred a month after nine soldiers were killed when two Army Black Hawk medical evacuation helicopters crashed during a nighttime training exercise in Kentucky.