23. The Plan

Written: March 23, 2003

Sunday, March 23rd
3:00am: In my sleep, I heard a series of explosions that sounded pretty close by but I wasn’t sure what it was and thought it may have just been a dream. I stayed sleeping then heard someone yelling, “GAS, GAS, GAS!” I knew it was coming. I grabbed for my mask. Everyone was putting their mask on and Howell was in his MOPP suit (now called JSLST) in a heartbeat. Somkovic was still sleeping so Howell kicked his bed and yelled at him, “Dude, wake up, GAS! get your mask on!”

There was a flurry of activity in the tent as people put their suits on. About half the people put them on and the other half, including me, just put our masks on and stayed buttoned up inside our sleeping bags. I asked Fred if he heard a boom and he said he did so we started thinking that it may have been a Patriot shooting down a Scud. We stayed in our sleeping bags with our masks on waiting for the, “All clear” signal. It came at 3:30am and we went back to bed.

At 7am, LTC Franks tossed a water bottle towards Fred and I and told us that we needed to get out to the aircraft. I walked over to him and asked him what was going on and he said that a British Tornado had crashed 5 miles east of Udairi and that we needed to go search for the pilots.

Fred and I gathered our gear and headed to the TOC while Jim and Kenny headed to the aircraft.

We gathered the information we needed (with no help from the 11th Regiment TOC) and headed out to the aircraft. We took off around 8:20 and linked up with CPT Hester and Sam who had already been searching for them for a few hours. The aircraft had crashed just north and west of the berm and was very close to being inside Udairi. There were parts scattered all around but no real crash pattern. We saw some debris and a few large pieces. The 101st sent out a ground team to secure the site while we searched from above in hopes of finding the pilots.

We headed out and flew all the way to the Iraqi border then began searching for the pilots. We saw lots of tracked vehicles on the border and figured that they were Kuwaiti. They waved at us as we passed.

We flew all the way back to the crash site and by this time were joined by our Apache lead: Ed and Steve. We needed to plot a grid on the map so Fred landed. While we were coming down, we noticed a signal man on the ground motioning us to land near him. We did. A Captain came up to us and told us that they found one of the pilots, dead, and that he was just over the hill in front of us. He wanted to know if we were going to pick him up or what he should do. We relayed the information to the TOC through Ed. They (the ground guys) were told to secure the site and wait for British aircraft to arrive.

Meanwhile, we got a grid of a possible radio beacon transmission. We plotted the grid and found it was only 5 miles away. We took off and flew right over the body. It was a mess. Kenny and I saw it. Bob was also in the aircraft and saw it too. His body was bloated a bit (looked swollen) and was lying in a splatter of blood. You could tell where his head was but couldn’t really tell it was human other than his legs which were broken and bent.

We continued our search and found nothing. We were told to head back so we did. That was our first Combat mission.

We shutdown and talked with the others about what we saw then headed back to the tent to relax. We were supposed to leave for Objective Rams, but heard it was not secure yet. A few hours later we were surprised to learn that we were leaving in the early afternoon.

The plan: All of the 11th Regiment attack aircraft and all of us would fly to Rams then conduct a deep attack at night. Sounded like a stupid, hasty plan but these guys are so worried about getting left out of the fight that its ridiculous.

We packed all of our gear and sent it down to the flight line then all met for a briefing. We were flying the same route that everyone else had been using. The route was 2 hours and 6 minutes long and was going to push the limits of our fuel.

We packed up and looked like the Beverly Hillbillies. Chris Miles, our Apache LNO was flying with us and so was CBS Bob. All our seats were out so we packed our passengers in wherever they could find a place to sit. Chris sat on a plastic lawn chair. He was logging OR time on the flight so we all laughed that he had to have been the first guy in history to log combat OR time in a plastic chair.

We took off and loaded the machine guns. The LTC told us we could not test fire the weapons because there were so many friendly personnel in the area that it would be secure. We crossed the boarder and didn’t see anything other than sand and vehicles that were probably blown up during the last war.

Our route took us over many small villages. Some people waved, some ran and others threw sticks at us. I saw one mother holding her two small children close as they cowered from the site of American helicopters flying overhead. We were the last in a long string of aircraft that already flew this way. Our fuel was tight and we landed with 190 pounds of gas (about 12 minutes of fuel). We shutdown and found that none of our vehicles, which left 3 days ago, had arrived yet.

The plan proceeded. The Apaches began to get refueled from a handful of trucks that were already low on gas. They could not refuel all aircraft for the mission so they took what they could get. We got none.

All our aircraft landed abreast each other facing northeast towards the city of An Najaf which was about 10 miles away. We could not see the city (until night) but knew it was there.

There we sat. Out of gas and on our own. Although we were there with the Apaches of the 11th Regiment and some of the UH-60s from our Battalion, we did not have any infantry or large weapons to fend off an attack--and as far as we knew, the only thing keeping the enemy from us was distance...and that would surely close up over the next few days.

CPT Hester was handed the company guidon and he stabbed it into the ground--planting it in Iraq! We took a quick picture and then went to our aircraft to get ready for night fall.

We began guard duty with 2 people from each aircraft roving around the perimeter with an M-16 and night vision goggles. We were providing our own security because there was absolutely no one else around. We also had heard reports the all the cities were still full of resistance and that the area we were in was not secure and 20 minutes prior to us landing there were 3 enemy tanks destroyed by our tanks as they passed through on their way north.

I fell asleep but was woke up at 1am by Pete Barr (from Honduras) for guard duty. Jim and I were going to pull it tonight for our crew. Through the night vision goggles (and even without them) we could see tracers shooting into the air and the sky illuminating from explosions. When it gets dark you certainly feel alone like its you against the world.

We heard that the mission had launched and soon we could see aircraft coming back. One Apache came into land and descended backwards. I watched him through NVGs as he continued down and to the rear and hit the ground. His nose came up and it looked like he was going to crash but he managed to level the aircraft and came up to a 100’ hover. He then landed in front of us.

At the same time, a Humvee came driving by with some refuel trucks behind it. They were looking to refuel a Medevac aircraft because there were casualties inbound from the mission. It was Pete Barrs aircraft. Jim and I helped them move their cots to get ready for take off.

After they refueld Pete's Blackhawk, I convinced the Sergeant to give us some fuel--he pulled his truck over to us and I routed the fuel hose over, around and under the 3 others that were sleeping next to our aircraft--very unsafe but they slept right through it though.

The MEDEVAC aircraft was ready to go and were waiting on the casualties. There was much confusion to follow.

Soon, Apaches were landing all over. We heard that they got shot to shit and never even made it to their attack positions. The enemy had air defense artillery ready for them and once they realized they were helicopters, they concentrated their fires lower.

We watched in total amazement turned to horror as aircraft limped back to the assembly area in various lighting configurations and altitudes. It was like watching a gaggle of beat dogs trying to hide.

As we watched this, I could feel our moral sinking. The Apaches were returning. Two pilots were lost (either dead or captured) and we could do nothing.

The end results (found out on the 24th of March): From 1-227th of the 1st Cavalry Division alone: 4 engines were destroyed, 1 aircraft crashed on take off, 1 aircraft was shot down in the outskirts of Karbala, 2 pilots are missing and all aircraft had various levels of damage due to gun fire.

The 6-6 Cavalry was shot up too and many of their aircraft had holes in them. One of their pilots, Lieutenant King was shot through the aircraft canopy and hit in the neck. I saw him and he was walking and doing well but an update is that the round traveled in pieces into his neck. One piece went through and 3 others were lodged in his neck. He was evacuated and will be fine.

When the Apaches from the 1-227th went down, one of our Command and Control pilots said he could see the Apache get hit and as it was descending, the fire concentrated on the cockpit area even after it was on the ground. The Squadron Commander flew in to try to get the pilots out via a spur ride, but met intense fire and his external fuel pod was shot and caught fire. He jettisoned his tank. The pilots were left. No one could get there to help. The Air Force sent in some A-10’s to help push the enemy away but it was no use.

And during all of this, there we sat--this was our mission--our job--to pick up downed pilots but instead, we sat in the middle of Iraq with no fuel and no idea of what was really going on.

What a long day. It started with an attempt to find two British pilots who were shot down--and it ended with us sitting in Iraq as the fate of two Apache pilots was unknown.

Depressing and frustrating.