I usually don't discuss my missions and operations here in Afghanistan for reasons that should be fairly obvious, but tonight was pretty cool so I will share what I can about some of what we did. I am currently flying the Night Quick Reaction Force (QRF) mission.
The canyon limited our approach options to either entering the canyon about a mile from the LZ and flying between the narrow vertical rock faces, or performing a 2000 foot vertical decent. The vertical decent would be incredibly difficult and extremely dangerous given that we were loaded down with "beans and bullets" for the resupply. So we navigated the canyon. It was awesome! The canyon was magnificent with a winding river bed below and the tight corridors barely big enough for my Blackhawk’s 50 foot wingspan. At one point our rotor blades were within 10 feet of the cliff on the right and 10 to 15 feet on the left. The margin of error was almost zero. When we reached the LZ the canyon opened into a beautiful bowl. The rocks and dust on the river bank gave way to a fertile valley oasis with a small grove of weeping willow trees and an array of green vegetation nestled up to the edge of the shallow creek. In another world, this could have been one of God’s great masterpieces. But a totally destroyed Up-armored MRAP on the other side of the creek quickly reminded me how these people have squandered this land’s beauty and promise.
Just as we left the canyon for home we received another call telling us to divert to another base where we would shut down for a few hours and be briefed for another mission. When we arrived at Sharona Army Airfield, we were informed that we would be participating in an air assault insertion at dawn.
We had several hours until “H-hour,” so I laid down in the back of my Blackhawk and took a little nap. Now if you think it might be cool to spend a night in a multi-million dollar Blackhawk hotel room, take my word for it; it’s not! The Blackhawk may be one of the most versatile helicopters in the world, but they are not equipped for a comfortable nap. Perhaps the Air Force H-60s come with that option, but the Army didn’t spring for it.
Anyway, back to the Air Assault: The basic concept of Air Assault Operations is to overwhelm the enemy by surprising them with an extremely rapid influx of force. To be successful you have to surprise the enemy by hitting them hard and fast and overwhelm them with the ferocity and scale of force. And nobody does that better than us.
The objective was basically to capture a village that was known to be a local Taliban stronghold. Our mission involved inserting sniper teams on the outskirts of a hostile town so they could provide over watch for 2 groups of special operations soldiers that would kick down every door in the village. Our Blackhawks inserted the sniper teams while two Chinook helicopters simultaneously inserted the door kickers at different sides of the town.
From the satellite imagery we were given, our selected LZ looked like a large rectangular farmer’s field with some type of green vegetation planted on it. When we arrived at the insertion point, it was clear that our satellite imagery was outdated. The field was brown and freshly tilled. There wasn’t a plant in sight and it didn’t look like the field had even been watered in a month. We came in low and fast and the helicopter was just engulfed in a huge thick dust cloud. As I was coming into the LZ I noticed a farmer with a garden hoe working dirt in his field directly in front of my flight path. For just a split second I saw the old man look up at us barreling down at him. Then he shrugged, put his head down and went back to work with his garden hoe. We landed just about 50 meters shy of where he was working and he was immediately engulfed in the thick dust cloud and disappeared from sight.
Just a few seconds later the insertion was complete and we pulled pitch and took off. As I took off I was amazed to see that old man still just working his field as if we were not even there. We flew directly over him just about 10 or 15 feet above his head and he didn’t even look back up at us. But then again, we dusted the heck out of that guy and I’m sure he didn’t enjoy being sand blasted by us. We probably didn’t do his field any favors either. I also suspect that after we left the sniper team we dropped in his field surely gave him a rude awakening too, but I don’t feel bad, because that little town was chock full of bad people. He was probably asking for it.
Within just a few minutes of the insertion an announcement of our arrival blasted over the town load speakers from the town mosque. It said, “The American’s are here! Stop fighting and put down your weapons! Do not fight them, there are too many of them!” The entire town surrendered within minutes. Many seasoned Taliban fighters were immediately detained.
Now that is what I call a successful air assault. Subdue the enemy with a lightening fast punch of overwhelming force. Let them peer into the gates of hell. Give them no time to think or react but only let them know that judgment day has arrived and they shall give a full account of their crimes. Give them only the choice to surrender without hesitation or to find out what their god really thinks of their martyrdom. When no one has to die, but the show of force alone brings hardened fighters to their knees, we get to draw another slash mark in the “Wins” column for America.
And after only a 14 hour duty day, I got to go home and go to bed. yea!
