A Soldier's Perspective

Letter From Camp Striker

I got this in an email from a Soldier in an Aviation unit in Iraq:

10 Ways Camp Striker is better than Las Vegas.

1. Less chance of getting shot.
2. The weather (Give me 115 degree weather over 119 any day)
3. The food: have you actually been to the buffet at The Tropicana? Yuck.
4. Money (I will probably walk away with more money in my pocket after 15 months here than I would in the same time from L.V.)
5. There are no bums/vagrants/prostitutes at Camp Striker…at least that I've seen.
6. Physical Fitness. I've lost ten pounds since being here. I'd gain that in a weekend in L.V.
7. Better Entertainment. We got Toby Keith. They have Carrot Top.
8. The non-skilled laborers speak better English.
9. The Mob doesn't have unilateral control of the infrastructure. Unless you consider Halliburton organized crime.
10. Nevada has Harry Reid. We don't.

I hope all is well wherever you may be. Another week down, countless to go. I guess I could count the weeks, but no one can say with certainty how long we are going to be here. 15 Months? More? Less? I can't wait for the rumors to start flying around this time next year, whenever everyone and their brother will have "inside knowledge" on when we are actually re-deploying. I choose not to dwell on exact dates. We are going to be here for a while. "Well I guess we'll get back on the horse and get back out there." That was a quote from an OH-58D pilot who interviewed with the press after being shot down this week. You may or may not have heard about this amazing story because everyone survived and no one's civil rights were violated. Our "if it bleeds, it leads" media is more interested in fatalities but I'm not telling you anything new.

For those of you who don't know, my battalion is in an aviation brigade. The aviation brigade has the following aircraft in it: UH-60s: carry stuff CH-47s: carry a lot of stuff AH-64Ds: shoot stuff OH-58Ds: look at stuff

One of the OH-58Ds was engaged by enemy fire earlier last week. The OH-58D is the smallest aircraft we have and the most vulnerable. Add the fact that they typically fly at the tree top level and that they're made out of empty cans of "New Coke", you've got yourself a hairy situation if engaged. The Apache is heavily armored and if engaged in the same fashion as the OH-58D was, would just sneer back and unleash the Kraken on the poor mislead Sunni/ Shia/Kurd/Al Qaida/Irani/Syrian/Lebanese/Egyptian/Saudi (I can't keep track who hates us) who dared to annoy it.

So the OH-58D was shot multiple times and miraculously the pilots were not hit despite the fact that they fly with their doors off. Nonetheless, the aircraft could no longer fly and they had to make a crash landing whereby the aircraft ended up on its side. Again, no noticeable injuries. Well the pilots' wingman was also hit and had to come back home leaving them alone in Indian country. Normally, if your wingman is shot, you stay with him. Remember Viper's quote in Top Gun? "You never leave your wingman, Maverick." Side note: this is every military aviator's favorite pilot movie; be it Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. Nobody likes Firebirds. Nobody.

So these guys were on the ground in the vicinity of the very dudes that shot them down. So they hightail into a canal thinking they would be able to make a quick get away. They get stuck in the canal because it it too deep and muddy. So the bad guys start shooting into the canal. The bad guys couldn't see them in the canal because of the dense reeds, but they knew they were there. For 15 minutes or so the bad guys were aimlessly shooting hoping to hit the pilots. They never did. The bad guys started moving down the canal to find them when an Apache who was aware of the incident came on seen. The bad guys knowing they didn't stand a chance with an Apache in the area decided it was time to go home.

The Apache landed near the downed aviators. They were able to communicate with them through a radio all pilots carry on them for these types of occasions. Knowing they couldn't wait for a rescue helicopter to come pick them up (My battalion had a team ready to take off) because of the bad guys in the immediate area, the Apache took them home. For those of you who don't know, there's is no room in the Apache to take anyone home. The only thing Apaches transport are ammunition to expedite the none-democracy-wanting insurgents' rendezvous with Allah.

So the front seater of the Apache got out and put one of the OH-58D pilots in the front seat. While not hurt, the guy was pretty shook up, hence the decision to give him a little more comfortable ride. The Apache guy strapped himself to the right side of the aircraft, and the other OH-58D guy strapped himself to the left side. Again, on the outside of the aircraft. The back- seater flew them all the way back to Baghdad. This was about a 10 minute flight at 120 knots (about a 135 miles per hour). I've actually done this drill before. We did this training in Germany once, but I think we only went about 45 miles an hour. Imagine going 135 miles an hour on a motorcycle without a windshield or helmet. The noise alone is deafening. The OH-58D guy didn't have his helmet or ear protection. One might forgive him for not collecting all his valuables before leaving his crashed aircraft when people were trying to kill him.

The Apache guys were not even from our brigade, but from another brigade in theater who just happened to be in the area at the time of the shoot down. The OH-58D pilots had some cuts and bruises despite being shot at in the air, crashing, being shot at at on the ground, and riding the side of an aircraft out of badguyland with zero protection. I don't know if they are believers, but Providence brought them home that day.

It brings a tear to my eye to think of the extraordinary things done by ordinary people on a daily basis in Iraq. When asked by the interviewer what they were going to do now, the younger pilot said "Well I guess we'll get back on the horse and get back out there" in a couple of days. Amazing. Tiger Woods isn't a hero. These guys are.

God Bless, Dan

Thank you, Dan. Keep your spirits up and KILL 'EM ALL!! (for you anti-war folk out there, this is a reference to killing all the ENEMY, not all the Iraqis.)