CULVER CITY : Purple Heart Is Awarded to Copter Pilot Killed in Iraq

An Army pilot from Culver City and 14 other U.S. servicemen have been awarded Purple Heart medals posthumously nearly a year after they were killed in a widely reported friendly-fire incident over northern Iraq.

Erik Scott Mounsey, 28, was flying one of two U-60 Blackhawk helicopters shot down by U.S. Air Force jets in the April 14, 1994, incident that killed 26 people, 15 of them Americans.

Mounsey, a native of Westchester, was married to his high school sweetheart, Kaye. She and their daughter, Natasha, live in Culver City.

The Purple Heart usually is awarded to soldiers who are injured or killed in combat or during an enemy attack. Army and Air Force officials last year ruled that Mounsey and the other Americans killed in the friendly-fire incident did not meet the criteria for the medal.

But Rep. Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles) last year successfully lobbied the Army and Air Force to review their decision. For Mounsey’s family and friends, the awarding of the Purple Heart to Erik was a bittersweet victory.

“It’s a tragedy we’ve had to fight the government for nearly a year when this should have been a given,” said Kim Cook, Mounsey’s sister-in-law. “But we would all just rather have our loved ones back.”

The fight will continue, however, as the survivors of all the service personnel killed in the friendly-fire tragedy press the military for $100,000 in compensation to each family--the same amount awarded to the families of 11 foreign nationals who were killed in the same incident.

Military officials have denied the request, citing federal laws that prevent them from making such payments.