12 years ago today...

Written: February 25 - 27, 2003

Tuesday, February 25th
12 years ago today I woke up with the news that the Ground War had started. This day I woke up almost as if in a dream and I didn’t or couldn’t believe that 4 people who I knew had died just a few hours ago.

The Task Force commander spoke to us about the crash. He started off strong but then kept going round and round. He was teary eyed as was the Battalion Commander which brought tears to my eyes. The hardest part is seeing the pain that everyone else is going through.

Was able to call Stefanie. I talked to her for an hour and it was nice to hear her voice, to tell her I was ok, and to talk about everything from the kids to the bills.


Wednesday, February 26th
Today is the memorial. Woke up and showered. While I was shaving, someone came in, with their gas mask on and told us to get ours on too! They said there was an explosion at the front gate. My mask was in the tent. Shawn and Sam were with me. I knew that the wind was blowing in the wrong direction to actually have an impact on us but I still ran for the tent and put my mask on. Took a few pictures of us in our masks.

Had a meeting concerning the crash with all of the IP’s and Safety guys. We talked about what kind of training we need to do to prevent this from happening.

Alan Christenson held his tongue for a while but then finally spoke, very emotionally about the missions that his Company was being expected to do. Watching him and listening to him speak brought tears to my eyes. He was in the lead aircraft and he made it back. It is obvious, and totally understandable, that he was deeply affected by this.

Heard some things about the crash: SGT Hood was one of the crew chiefs on the lead aircraft. He said (and I heard this through a person who heard it from him) that they were flying out and went into the clouds, his aircraft climbed up and he looked back to see if he could find the ground (instead of climbing up through the clouds) and when he did, he heard, over the radio, chalk 2 ask, “Where are you guys at?” After that he remembers looking back and being able to see through the clouds. He saw their Blackhawk strike the ground, slide sideways then flip over. At some point he saw a bright flash.

Could you imagine how hard that would be—to be in a position to see your friends crash and catch on fire but not be in a position to help them at all?

After talking to a few others, it is clear that the crew did not suffer. They were dead before the fire ensued. The crash forces from the impact were enough to kill them. That is comforting to know that they did not burn alive like the guys at Bragg did in 1997 (although they-at Bragg-were undoubtedly unconscious). Heard some reports of what the bodies looked like and how their bodies were torn apart by the crash. The view of the investigation team is that the aircraft was in a high descent, landed left wheel low, the tail spun around the front causing the aircraft to roll violently on its side. One of the external tanks was jettisoned and was found in tact near by. The engines and transmission separated and left the aircraft. The cockpit was tore up and the cabin area was somewhat attached to the cockpit but was upside down like it had been totally twisted at that point. Apparently, the bodies were all in their seats.

Called Momma. Today is her birthday. I left a message on her answering machine. I bet she got a big surprise when she played her messages.

Thursday, February 27th
Woke up and went to breakfast. Had a bacon sandwich and some cereal.

Showed up at the Gabriel TOC at 9:45am. Sam went over a briefing and we talked about our plans for today’s flight. We plan on flying both teams. We completed the briefing then headed out to the aircraft only to find that maintenance was still an issue that was being worked on. We delayed the flight and eneded up taking off at 2pm. We, Fred and I, are second in the formation following a Longbow Apache. Behind us is CPT Cushwa and Shawn Holmes. Behind them are 2 more Apaches.

We took off at 2pm and worked many contingencies en route: an aircraft having to land due to mechanical or other similar issues (called Lame Duck); lost communications; navigation errors and lead change; IIMC break up; flight rejoining at an ACP; and actions on the objective.

We flew to an island near the Iraqi border in the Gulf. We crossed a deep blue river inlet and continued over a sandy marsh. We spread out in accordance with our plans and landed as briefed with the two UH-60’s putting the survivor in between them and the Apaches covering us at the 12, 5 and 7 o’clock positions. It looks awesome to see all these forces coming together to help one of our own. The Apaches lurk menacingly on the horizon like sharks in the water just looking for anything to shoot. Amazing.

We did three turns into the objective and worked with our newly installed Pilot Locator System (PLS). It is an easy to use system that interrogates the downed pilots survivor radio to give distance and general steering commands to his location. It works pretty well but not 100% accurate.

We returned, debriefed at 7pm then worked with Chris Wiley to print out the newly designed (by him) Gabriel patch. I added a tank getting attacked by the Apache. Looked really cool.