Jacob Pratt pictured with Esmee Luna, the wife of Border Patrol agent Christopher Luna, on the anniversary of the March 8, 2024, helicopter crash that killed Luna and New York Army National Guard aviators, Casey N. Frankoski and John M. Grassia III.

Sgt. 1st Class Jacob Pratt.

A photo of the Army National Guard helicopter that crashed a year ago in Texas shows a crumpled clump of metal in an empty field. You’d assume nobody could have survived.

Somehow, Sgt. 1st Class Jacob Pratt did.

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“I’ve seen my X-rays, and I’ve seen my scars,” Pratt said by phone from San Antonio. “I should not have made it out of that crash.”

On the day of the accident, Pratt was patrolling the southern border with two other New York Army National Guard aviators, Casey N. Frankoski and John M. Grassia III, and a Border Patrol agent, Chris Luna. In what was later described as a routine mission, the crew was monitoring a group that had illegally crossed the Rio Grande River near the small city of La Grulla, Texas, when the light-utility helicopter ran into trouble.

Pratt remembers when the UH-72 Lakota started to spin. He knew the situation was dire. He remembers little after that, he said.

When........

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