Steven R. Jewell dies 'of injuries suffered when his helicopter crashed'

A soldier from the Craven County area died in Iraq this week a month after he arrived there.

Steven Roy Jewell, 26, was one of five soldiers aboard a Chinook helicopter that crashed Tuesday in the Anbar Province outside Baghdad.

All five died.

The military said the crash appeared to be an accident, but it would be investigated. The helicopter was on what the military said was a routine flight after some maintenance work.

Jewell was an Army specialist with the 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment Task Force 49, based at Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

His father, Billy Jewell, a Pamlico County sheriff’s detective, said his son had been in Iraq for a month.

“He was planning to make the Army a career,” his father said in e-mail. “There is not a way to reason out why he died but to say that it was in God’s plan but I know he was doing what he thought was right and his duty to do.”

Jewell added, “Many people can debate the political side of all wars, but to the soldier it is part of what they may have to do. Before he left, Steven told me many times to make sure if something happened they all knew that he was aware of what could happen and he accepted that fact as part of the job he was paid to do for a country he loved very much.”

Steven Jewell enjoyed hunting, fishing and spending time with his family, his father said.

“He was a great son,” Jewell said.

Jewell said his son’s mother lives in the Dover area of Craven County.

He attended West Craven High School and entered the Army at the end of 2004.

From the Sun Journal