"AMERICAN CITIZENS EXTRACTION"
JUNE 2-3, 1998, Fort Bragg, North Carolina

WARNING ORDER: 2/82 Aviation Regiment will provide on order insertion of the 2/325th AIR (Airborne Infantry Regiment) into Pullerton to facilitate the evacuation of American Citizens from the increasingly hostile country of Kortuna.

--THURSDAY-- the warning order is received and the flight leads depart to the IPC (Initial Planning Conference) to evaluate and specify there requirement for the upcoming mission involving 35 of the 38 UH-60L Black hawks in the 2nd Battalion, 82nd Aviation Regiment. After hours of talking through the mission a final "contract" is agreed upon and the intense planning begins. The infantry, who will be using the Black hawks as their chariots to deliver them into the mouth of the lion, do not yet know what is in store for them in a mere 5 days.

--FRIDAY-- the crews are established and the initial planning and coordination begins; the mission: Evacuate American citizens from Pullerton. Maintenance is almost doubled to ensure the aircraft will be ready; crews reverse out (change work cycle from 6 am to 6 p.m. to working from 8 p.m. to 8 am)

--SATURDAY-- take a break....rest....enjoy the family....

--SUNDAY-- "Roger that Sir. I'll be there at 2000 hours ready for planning." The call out roster is exercised and the aviators receive word of when to show up to begin the arduous planning sequence that is being paralleled at the Infantry and Aviation Brigade, Battalion and Company levels. All the working parts must be sequenced to provide airspace deconfliction ( keep helicopters from crashing into each other) and a timely mission flow.
The briefing room door shuts. The outside of the door reads, "Do NOT disturb, meeting in progress," The Company Commander stands in front of his Aviators, "This is the deal men: I am going to give you a down and dirty overview of the mission...The Infantry will conduct an Airborne Assault into Sicily drop zone and secure it for follow on operations as a pick up/landing zone (PZ or LZ) and an American Citizens processing site. At P+4 (P is parachute hour) 15 Black hawks, with seats-out will land in PZ Sicily (code-named Coffee) and pick up 16 infantrymen (grunts) each. The 240 grunts will be air assaulted across the ocean to the Kortunan town of Pullerton where there will being the search and processing of American Citizens for evacuation to Bragg Island...."
The brief concluded after 15 minutes of explanations and the crews began to perform their assigned duties.

--MONDAY-- The intense planning continues on for another day. Tomorrow night is the execution night. There is to be 60% illumination until 2:00 a.m. when the moon sets. Flying with the green hue of the Night Vision Goggles (NVG's) sure beats flying into complete darkness and only being able to see things as they pass you by. The weather is predicted to be marginal at best with thunderstorms and heavy ground fog predicted to be in the coastal area throughout the mission time frame.
Finally it was time to conduct the Battalion rock drill. A walk through of the events and code-words that were to take place during the mission.

--TUESDAY-- The crews complete their issue of weapons, protective masks and water wings (flying over the ocean, aviators wear inflatable flotation devices as part of their survival gear). The Battalion brief follows and all the uncertainties are answered. The briefing opens and the Brigade Commander, Pegasus Six, gives a few encouraging words, "The Airborne Assault is in! The infantry are on the ground in Sicily and are quickly establishing an air head and PZ. The mission is a GO!" Pegasus Six ended the briefing with some encouraging words, "Those men who will be riding on your aircraft put blind faith in you. You are entrusted with the lives of America' sons and daughters; you will deliver them to the battlefield; into the hornets nest...and you will be their saving grace when it is time to pull them out. This is the aura that surrounds a professional soldier, aviator ...paratrooper! Fly safe and bring 'em home!" You could hear a pin drop as he finished his words...everyone stood and sharply saluted, "All the Way, Sir!" A weather update is received and the weather is still forecasted to be marginal; now tornado warnings are included in the forecast. Right about this time, as the crew chiefs (maintenance personal for the aircraft--the true heroes and selfless workers who maintain the fleet) are checking the aircraft a violent summer storm rises over the airfield and brings with it winds up to 50mph, torrential rains and dangerous lightning.."Get off the flight line!" The word is passed along to clear everyone off the flight line and back into the safety of the hangar. The mission is put on hold. The momentum that had developed was snuffed out by 2 inches of rain..."Hold?" hearts skip a beat...sighs of disappointment are breathed....thoughts flow through our mind: We can't cancel...we are ready! A lull comes over the battalion, the momentum is broke and everyone is holding...waiting for the word to launch or stand down. The word is given that there will be an update brief at 2230 hours (10:30pm). As the pilots assemble in the brief room the word is out that the mission is a GO! "Stay on the same timeline. It will be tight but I have faith that you can make it! The infantry are counting on you!" Well, since we haven't had a chance to go to the aircraft due to the storm it would mean that we had exactly 30 minutes to take all of our gear (helmets, flight vests, night vision goggles (NVG), heads up display units (HUD), combat helmets, load carrying equipment (LCE), protective masks, maps, knee boards, and any and all necessary publications and whatever else you could think to carry.....so, we had all of 30 minutes to make the trip to the aircraft, un tie it, open it up, conduct a pre-flight, get all the gear stowed and checked, run the aircraft up, set up the radios and overall get the cockpit ready for the mission. The pressure was on. It is nearly pitch black outside and you are trying to keep as much of your night vision as possible while still doing a thorough preflight. Everything is loaded up, the crew is ready and the checklist is called off: "Clear on #1?" "Number one is clear," you can hear the ruble in the engine as the fuel is turned to sound and the blades begin to start. "Good start on #1, clear on #2?" "Two's clear." The second engine is started, the systems check is complete and the crew chief straps in. As I set my NVG's up for the flight, I also program the radios. The communications check will commence is 3 minutes. Time is ticking away...but we have to do all we can to make it. Time flies when you having fun! Chalk 1 calls out of parking and begins to taxi to the active (the runway in use). I make the call to tower: "Army 26218 and flight, is 5 UH-60's holding short of the double yellows, request taxi to the Zero-nine for departure to the east on route Mercury." "Roger 218 and flight, taxi as requested to Zero-nine (09 is the runway heading). The flight taxis out in chalk order and passes the light signals as they line up. Everyone flips their NVG's down and into position. The green hue of the surrounding terrain begins to get clearer and finally is focused in."Corsair 11 (our call sign) you have a Corsair 5 Alpha." I get the flight up call and respond, "Roger, Corsair 5 Alpha." We are of in ten seconds and I count down the time the pilot (who happens to be an Instructor Pilot (IP)) in the right seat. "Five, four, three (the wheels get light and the hulk of the aircraft readies itself for flight) two, ONE!" We are off the ground, slowly at first, accelerating to 60 knots while the flight picks up at the same time in a staggered right formation. The Air Mission Commander (AMC) of chalk 1 makes the call to Operations: "Derwood." "Roger, Derwood." It has begun. The flight is off the ground at "Bragg Island" in route to a staging base off the coast of Kortuna where they will wait for the extraction call to extract the American Citizens (AMCITS). After navigating by the aid of "electric fly" (the Global Positioning System (GPS) that is in the aircraft) and using the map...the flight arrives at Cherry Point Station. This is our staging base. We land and taxi into hot refuel (getting gas with the engine running--dangerous with a helicopter because if something goes wrong and the fuel gets in the air, the rotor system will bring it up in the air and it will get sucked into the engine where it will become atomized and ignite sending a potential fireball towards the pilots who are strapped in the aircraft cockpit). After and uneventful hot refuel the flight repositions to the Foxtrot taxiway awaiting the call to launch. The main body has lined up and launched out of the airfield and have landed in PZ Coffee (pick up zone coffee). upon landing the grunts load into the aircraft--seats out--and hold on to the cargo strap that will secure them. All 15 aircraft load their 16 troops each and depart for the objective area; 97 miles away in the middle of darkness lies a city (military training city that was built to provide realistic training in Urban warfare) that is to be the safe-haven for the AMCITS who are to be evacuated. The aircraft arrive on time-on target (plus or minus zero--exactly on the nose) in LZ Shasta (landing zone Shasta) which lies outside the city in a field. The grunts exit and immediately organize and rush the city to begin their security of the AMCITS and the search for hostiles. (remember, all of this is done under the cover or darkness--the Army forces all have night vision goggles which allows them to see (in a green hue) all that goes on around them.

Quickly the grunts establish a foothold in the city and being receiving sporadic fire. The Black hawks which assaulted them in are long gone, headed for the holding area and awaiting the call to extract the grunts.Back at the staging base the Operations officer monitors the battle. Things are going ahead of schedule. "Crank one, launch one--immediately! I will brief them while they are in bound..."The word is passed up the column to where my crew and I receive the word to launch. Quickly we strap back in and start the aircraft. We are off the ground in less than 10 minutes and getting an update over the radio. As we proceed inbound to the city of Pullerton we contact Alpha Six (they are controlling LZ Raven which is where we are headed to). Alpha six informs us that there is gunfire in the city. We will be receiving 9 AMCITS--3 are wounded, and also 2 wounded soldiers.As we speed our way to the LZ at 140 knots we begin to see the church steeple which we recognize as the approach end of our run to the LZ. Our landing zone is a soccer field in the city. Surrounding it are stadium lights. The most dangerous presence is the church steeple which could easily hide a sniper. As we make our approach and slow down for the vertical descent to the soccer field I scan out the left door. I look towards the gymnasium (which is where the AMCITS are being processed) and see the doors burst open. Surrounded by grunts and joined arm in arm are the AMCITS. Some are being carried, dragged by the soldiers. They are all wearing, for their protection, helmets and flak vests. "Call my altitude" I hear over the intercom system. As we near the ground a HUGE dust cloud erupts. We are below the stadium light poles (lights are off or we would have proceeded to the alternate LZ) so it is not recommend to attempt to abort the landing. "thirty feet" I look out the door and see the dust enveloping us ....visibility is reduced to near nothing..."twenty, ten, hrmph! We are on the ground. Flat pitch, watch your rotor disk." the dust cleared and surrounding the field was a perimeter of grunts...protecting us and the AMCITS. Out the left door the grunts were already loading the wounded AMCITS...now the non-wounded ones...now the wounded soldiers...as they finish loading, they secure the door...the crew chiefs are scanning for and hostile targets with their M-60 machine guns....we are given a thumbs up and I give the word to lift off... As my heart pulls down into my seat we rise out of the soccer field and then quickly nose over to gain airspeed and remain with the contours of the earth. The people in the back are hooting and hollering...we made it! We call the code word in and set up the remainder of the flight. Route Mars which will return us (after an hour) to LZ Coffee.

We arrive at Coffee and land. The grunts open the door and secure the AMCITS and wounded soldiers. The doors are closed and we depart back to our original airfield. End of mission for us.Two more extraction birds are called into the soccer field. the city is cleared and the grunts have done an outstanding job! They now prepare for extraction. A rumble can be felt as you sit in the PZ awaiting the arrival of the helicopters. The 15 Black hawks crest the trees at the southern sector of the city. They land kicking up an awesome dust cloud. Quickly, professionally, silently the grunts load up and the flight departs. The call is made and the PZ is clean (no friendly forces remain). They are whisked back to Coffee without a problem.

The mission is a success! The battalion launched the required amount of aircraft (I failed to mention the Command and Control aircraft that sets back and views the battle from above and provides communication and direction for the commanders on the ground; also the ever important Electronic bird that intercepts, jams and disrupts enemy communications to turn the battle in our favor!).
Everyone played their part exactly as contracted! After 9 hours the infantry are returned to their departure field and everyone prepares for follow on missions!

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