22. Another Medevac Helicopter

Written: March 22, 2003

Saturday, March 22nd
Woke up at 11 or so. Spent the day relaxing and watching movies. Funny that the war has begun but all we can do right now is sit and wait until we are needed. Eventually we will be crossing the border soon enough.

Bob came in with blood all over his pants and hands. He cut his finger while cutting another hole in his belt. He went to the hospital here and was in there when a Medevac brought in 4 guys who were in their Hummvee when it was hit by enemy fire. 2 of them were conscious and two were unconscious. One was in critical condition. He said it was very sobering to see that.

We then went to the PR TOC to prepare for tonight. Went on the internet and gathered the communications card and other information we would need to fly. After printing maps for tomorrows movement north to An Najaf we preflighted and ran up our aircraft.

We returned to the TOC and found that nothing was going on so Javier and I walked to the South ramp to see Glenn Siegrist. Haven’t seen him since we got here so we hung around and shared stories.

Some of the guys in his unit were flying the LRS mission last night and they heard that a Predator was flying the route in front of them and the operators could see TLAMs (cruise missiles) fly by as they were inbound to the LZ.

Watched Meet the Parents with Pete Barr. His Medevac unit is assigned to us and heading into Iraq with us tomorrow.

Just heard another Medevac aircraft come in.

Tomorrow the plan is (as of right now) to fly to an airfield southwest of An Najaf. It is a dirt strip. We are all going to be there for a few days. Once there, the Apaches are going to brif their attack and then take off to begin fighting the Medina division of the Repulbican Guard. Seems to me like that plan is too hasty and there will be some problems.

Here comes another Medevac helicopter landing at the hospital.

Someone heard the Apache leadership say, “We have to attack tomorrow or 3rd ID is going to take the fight and we will miss out on it.” Silly stuff like that will get people killed. I hope this is not the case, but it seems like we may have a tough fight ahead of us.

Went to bed at 1:45am.