Ram Landing Zone, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, November 16th, 1999Perhaps this will give you an insight as to what an Artillery Raid is. The first picture is of the
UH-60L Blackhawk in a Landing Zone waiting for the mission to begin. First of all, these pictures were taken in the daylight on Ram LZ on Ft Bragg, NC with only 3 aircraft participating. To get the full effect we would have to take the pictures at night using Night Vision Goggles (NVG's), have 6 UH-60L Blackhawk's, 6 M119 105mm Howitzers, the full compliment of combat troops and, oh yes, be behind enemy lines! So here it is. The LZ is set and the birds are on the ground. In the sequence of pictures you can see the artillerymen preparing to load the aircraft and as the sequence progresses, you can see the aircraft landing under brownout conditions, the troops loading the aircraft, and then, finally, the sling load getting hooked to the aircraft and lifted off the ground.
You can also see the hook-up team ready to attach the gun to the aircraft. The men are loaded, and the aircraft picks up and slowly repositions over the awaiting gun and hook-up team... Once hooked up, the hook-up team will move a safe distance away and watch as the Blackhawk goes to work! "Ten feet, twenty, thirty...looking good..." The gun is hooked up properly and is ready to fly... So it's off. The aircraft will now fly into enemy territory and drop the guns off so they can fire a quick mission and be retrieved before receiving counter-battery fire from the enemy. As an alternative method for picking up the combat loads, we can use a tandem load configuration which is pictured next. I am picking up the load with Joe Rosado. Dangling beneath the artillery piece is the ammunition bag. Flying in this configuration requires a bit more finesse when picking up and putting down the load.
We conducted training similar to this before a task force from the 82nd Airborne Division deployed to Kosovo--and actually used the techniques (tandem-load) just as we trained.