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Pilot was 1st female Tenn. guard death in Iraq

NASHVILLE — Tennessee Army National Guard pilot Billie Jean Grinder, who died Sunday in a helicopter crash in Iraq, was the first female Guard member to die there since the war began, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Grinder, a chief warrant officer from Gallatin, and Capt. Marcus Ray Alford of Knoxville died when their OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter made what the Army called a “hard landing” at a base in northern Iraq.

No hostile action was involved in the crash at Qayyarah Airfield West, about 30 miles south of Mosul in northern Iraq, officials said.

Grinder and Alford were members of Troop C 1/230th Air Cavalry, based in Louisville, Blount County.

Grinder’s sister, Melissa Smith, said the 25-year-old deployed to Iraq for her first tour in June 2009. She was scheduled to come home within two weeks.

“She was looking forward to helping me plan my wedding. We were going shopping for dresses in two weeks,” said Smith, who lives in Browerville, Minn.

Smith, 27, also served in the Tennessee Army National Guard, as did their father, Billy Davenport, and Billie Jean Grinder’s husband, Sam.

Sam Grinder returned from Iraq to the couple’s Gallatin home earlier this month, Smith said.

“We’re definitely a military family,” she said. “That’s all we ever knew growing up — that we wanted to be in the military, too.”

Smith said she and her family were still in shock but said she was comforted knowing her father, an aviation mechanic with the Tennessee Army National Guard, was stationed with Billie Jean Grinder at Camp Speicher, Iraq.

“She was the kind of person everyone looked up to and wanted to be like — even me,” Smith said.

Fearless

Grinder enlisted in the Tennessee Army National Guard when she was a senior at Smyrna High School in 2002.

Known for her trademark “giant smile,” Smith described her sister as a tough but girly tomboy who rode motorcycles and gave generously to the people in her life.

“She loved to have a good time,” Smith said. “She had tattoos and liked going fast and doing things that other people might see as dangerous. She had absolutely no fear.

“She was also the sweetest, kindest person you could ever hope to meet.”

Smyrna High School classmate Brandi Banniza Gibson, of Fort Meade, Md., remembered Grinder as a friend to everyone she met, devoted to her country and to her 10-year-old twin stepdaughters.

“She loved, loved her ‘family circle,’ and she talked about those girls all the time. She thought of them as her own,” Gibson said. “She had a truly genuine heart and her smile could instantly make you smile with her.”

The accident is under investigation, Maj. Randy Harris of the Tennessee National Guard said Tuesday.

“Words cannot express my extreme sorrow at the loss of these outstanding soldiers, and my heartfelt sympathy goes out to the families and friends of these valiant warriors,” said Maj. Gen. Max Haston, Tennessee’s adjutant general. “We are still a nation at war and we must continue to keep our soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen in our daily thoughts and prayers.”

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