Army Chief Warrant Officer Suresh Krause, killed in Black Hawk helicopter crash to be laid to rest tomorrow

CATHEDRAL CITY - A Cathedral City soldier killed in Afghanistan will be laid to rest in his hometown tomorrow.

Army Chief Warrant Officer Suresh Krause, 29, was killed Aug. 16 northeast of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, along with six other U.S. Armed Forces members in a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed while being fired upon by insurgents.

Krause was assigned to the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division and graduated from Cathedral City High School.

Funeral services are planned for 10 a.m. Thursday at Forest Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary. Interment will follow at Desert Memorial Park, also in Cathedral City. The services are open to the public, according to the mortuary.

Krause's remains were flown to Palm Springs International Airport on Sunday and escorted to Forest Lawn.

Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs, helped Krause, a native of Sri Lanka, obtain U.S. citizenship.

''Simply becoming an American citizen wasn't enough for Suresh. He wanted to defend his adopted home, as well,'' Bono Mack said last week. ''... In the end, Suresh Abayasekara Krause was as American as you can get. I was honored to have known him.''

Krause attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz., and enlisted in the Army in 2007, becoming a Black Hawk pilot in 2009, according to The Desert Sun.

Three members of the Afghan National Security Forces and an Afghan civilian interpreter also were killed in the Black Hawk crash.