28. FA-18 Shoot Down

Wednesday, April 2nd
1:00am zulu: Woke to the sounds of, “GAS, GAS, GAS!” Put my mask on then fell back asleep until we were told to put our full protective suits on. Put the suit on then covered up and went back to sleep. Got the All Clear 30 minutes later then fell asleep again.

Woke up at 0530Z (0830 local) and went to the Battalion TOC to gather information needed for today’s flight. When completed we went to the aircraft and prepared for departure. We took off at 10:35 for the 2 hour flight back to Udairi. Along the way we saw some cool stuff. First of all, the route was not over the Euphrates River and many towns like it was on the way up. We passed the 82nd Airborne Division’s area and we knew this because we saw some heavy drop parachutes and bundles on the ground. The 82nd is working the town of Sammwah and as we passed it we could see a large, black cloud indicating a large bomb of some sort just blew up. The cloud grew then finally dissipated.

Continuing on we saw a lot of unexploded ordinance on the ground. You could see some large bombs buried in the dirt with the tail sticking out and you could also see some smaller shells, perhaps artillery on the ground as well. As we got closer to the border we could see a lot of American vehicles that were abandoned. They were left in place and had been looted--right down to the tires being gone and the doors removed. We could also see a lot of blown up tanks and other armored vehicles that were destroyed in Desert Storm.

We test fired our weapons while in route. The crew chiefs fired their M-60’s and then Fred and I shot our pistols out the windows. Worked pretty well and I kept the brass casing from my first rounds shot in combat even though it wasn’t in anger. The crew chiefs also fired their M-4 rifle.

We landed at Udairi, Kuwait and after a bit of confusion from the ground controllers, we shut down and got refueled. We then made two trips to gather sets of external fuel wings that were left during our move north.

Talked to Stefanie via Fred’s cell phone (coverage in Kuwait only) and found out that Canon is sending me another camera to replace mine! She is going to send it with LT Karkalik who is coming to our Company – or that is at least the rumor. He is supposed to leave soon. Was great hearing her voice again. I miss her. Also talked to Benjamin for a few seconds because he answered the phone.

We saw a lot of people from the 4th Infantry Division at Udairi. They just got here although they may have been in transient for a while because they were originally supposed to go in through the north (Turkey) but that didn't work out. Now they are in the south (Kuwait) and getting trained up before they cross the border.

While we were gathering the various scattered equipment we left here at Udairi, we also took the opportunity to pick up a truck load of mail for 5th Battalion. Mail is stacked up inside the mail tent because units have deployed north without leaving a destination (duh...did we know a true destination anyhow? The rear echelon guys make me laugh sometimes). We also made a stop by the chow hall where we were treated to some onion rings, hamburgers, chips and sodas. When we gave this stuff to our crews to eat it was like none of us had eaten in years. It was delicious. We ate the food but were able to bring back 6 cases of sodas to share with the company!

After a few hours on the ground, we took off for Iraq. On our return flight we passed by a kid who was riding a horse. He watched as the other aircraft passed him then Shawn (in the other aircraft) and I watched as the horse bucked and knocked the kid onto the ground. It was a funny site to see although I am sure the kid wasn't laughing.

We also flew past many American convoys and saw an American heavy vehicle that had recently been set on fire (either by us or them). It was on a trailer so we assumed that it was abandoned and we put an incendiary grenade in it. We flew fast and low over the convoys and waved at them as they waved at us. Its like somethign out of a recruiting video!

We landed back to our "camp" at Tactical Assembly Area Rams into a nasty, dusty place and unloaded the mail and our sodas.

We are all trying to make the change to operating on Zulu time. Zulu represents Greenwhich Meantime and serves as one standard time to use. For us, Zulu is 3 hours behind local time but it really doesn’t matter if you use it all the time. We have been starting our duty days at 0900Z so you learn to develop your eating and sleeping times around that. Saw Fox news and heard that the Medina Division and Baghdad Division had both been defeated. Our forces are within 18 miles of Baghdad and closing in. There was a Scud launched at Karbala with no affect on our troops. Things are pushing fast now. Also found out that a Special Ops team rescued one of the POW’s from An Nasariyah. Read a report that the other POW’s were killed and drug through the streets on Iraqi television (still no word on the 1-227th Pilots).

We relaxed with some South Park and Seinfeld. I fell asleep for about an hour and was woke up by Chris who said there was a mission: a Blackhawk had crashed near Karbala. I lost track of time and was suprised when I walked out of the tent into the darkness. I tried to help with the planning but in the end we were told to stand down because Medevac and other aircraft were already on the scene. I was walking back to our CP with Sam when we were told that there was another mission.

We went to the Battalion TOC and found that an FA-18 was shot down and there were reports that the pilot had ejected north of our location--near the Karbala Gap. As Sam's PR team got the information they needed to take off, I printed off some maps and route cards for them—all the information necessary to launch was passed to us via the Internet Chat.

It was totally dark when they took off on the mission. It was so dark that our sister Battalion had to cancel a planned Long Range Surveillance Team insertion this night. The 2 Blackhakws and the 3 Apaches were all ready to take off and we stood by as one by one they lifted into the air. We were looking through our night vision goggles and watched as they applied power to lift off and were immediately surround and engulfed in sand. Within a few seconds we could see the aircraft climbing out of the cloud. The subsequent aircraft had to wait for the cloud to dissapate before they could take off which created a large seperation in the flight.

As the final Apache was taking off, the pilots failed to realize that the crew chief was hooked up to the intercom system via a cable outside the aircaft. In the excitement to depart, the crew took off and ripped the external connection off the aircraft thereby damaging their communications system. The pilot in the front seat could no longer talk to the pilot in the back seat. This is a pretty significant problem in an aircraft where you are seperated by seat position and a thick plexiglass-type window.

As it was, the five aircraft were off the ground and I went to the Battalion TOC to listen to the mission. Altough we didnt know it initially, we quickly realized two things:

1) the flight was scattered and very slowly working on catching up to each other. The extreme darkness was not helping the situation so they continued along at a slower speed in order to make the link up happen.

2) the Apache with the communications problem had broken off the flight and was trying to land back in the assembly area.

Throughout the flight, all the crews encountered various forms of spatial disorientation and almost crashed on more than one occasion.

They entered the area near where the aircraft was reportedly shotdown and went into a search to try to find the pilot. After searching the area to the extent their fuel would allow they returned.

I watched as the aircraft all tried to land (at night still) into the crappy spots they had taken off from. It took a while but all aircraft eventually landed - one Apache actually landed too hard and blew the tail strut out.

The crews were certainly on edge from the horrible conditions they had just flown in and I realized that, having not been on that flight, I would never be able to relate what they felt in writing. It was, by far, the worst flying experience most of them had ever had. The crews debriefed and went to bed.

Went to bed at 1:30 zulu (or 4:30am).