33. The Best Day of the War

Written: April 13 - 14, 2003

Sunday, April 13th
Found out that the US POW’s were found—2 Apache pilots and 5 soldiers from the 507th Maintenance Company. I guess they were found north of Baghdad (Sammarah) walking together on a road. The Marines heard that there were some Americans ahead and when they drove north, they found them. They put them in a helicopter and flew them to Baghdad International then put them on a flight to Kuwait International. We received a mission to fly escorts from their unit to the Armed Forces hospital to assist the freed POW’s in the repatriation process. Their escorts will stay with the POW’s all through the repatriation process and will actually go home also. What an awesome bit of news! Everyone is excited. We are supposed to arrive at Kuwait International at approximately the same time as the POW’s arrive.

Flying with me was Javier Gutierrez, Kenny Somkovic and Kenneth Martin. Flying behind us was Fred S., Mike Cushwa, Xavier Almeda and Chris Robinson.

We rushed out to the aircraft to get ready to take off. It was close to night fall but we had our NVGs all ready to go when it was time to transition to wearing them. We waited in the aircraft for our passengers to arrive. Across the desert assembly area we saw a Humvee driving up. It had a small flag waving on one of it’s radio antennas and it was kicking up a dust tail behind it. We had 9 passengers in all—7 escorts, LTC Ball (1-227th Bn Commander) and the Company commander (Viper 06). The escorts sole function is to remain with the POW’s as they go through their repatriation process. The will leave the theater with them and remain by their side as a familiar face until the process is complete. The do this to make the POW’s as comfortable as possible and to have a friend with them.

We took off for Tallil airfield (An Nasariayah) at 14:05 zulu. We arrived there at sunset and refueled and saw lightning in the direction of our flight route. I called weather to update and it wasn’t looking good but they said we may be able to make it around the thunderstorms. We took off and tried. It was getting harder to see because the sun was down so we eventually put our goggles on. It was just about the same as having them off but it was getting darker so we would need them anyhow. We could see the flashes still happening and tried to continue on. We wanted to get them to their people. We saw a huge streak that covered the sky to our front and all decided to turn around. We went back to Tallil and shutdown. I spent a few minutes on the radio with the weather forecaster trying to figure out when the storm would pass but after a bit of frustration I asked them to send a vehicle out to our location to bring us in. We got a ride into Brigade by CW2 Sobel from Big Windy.

12th Brigade HQ’s is working out of an apparent ammunition bunker on Tallil Airfield. The bunker is about 50 feet high and 100 feet deep as you look at it from above. When you walk up to it and enter it, you walk in through a huge metal door (not too thick) and walk down a wide ramp that takes you below the ground about 40 feet (guessing). When you get to the bottom of the ramp, you turn the corner and there is a huge open bay with all the HQ’s operations set up in there. It appeared to have been untouched. There are Iraqi signs on the walls. The room is about 100’ x 100’. I entered the room and I saw Matt Brewster in there! I snuck up on him and said hello. Great to see him. We talked for a few and took some pictures.

We talked to weather and looked at the radar loops and it didn’t seem like it was getting better but weather thought it would clear in a few hours. We waited. While we waited, I went to see Glenn Siegrist who was working in the next bunker over. He was doing well and we took a few pictures together. The door to his bunker had been blown open by something. It had a pretty large hole in it.

We waited on the weather but it only got worse. A huge thunderstorm passed over head and dumped large amounts of rain on us. Meanwhile, out at the aircraft, Javier said the lightning was causing static electricity to dance on the blades of the aircraft. The lines of electricity were a few inches long. They kept away from the aircraft but could feel their hair standing up.

We decided that we would not be able to make it there tonight so Brigade gave us a Humvee to take back to the aircraft. We went back to the aircraft and all 18 of us slept in or around the two aircraft. It was a rough night for sleeping but it wasn’t too bad. I slept in my MOPP suit and we also broke into our survival kits and opened the sleeping bags.

Monday, April 14th
Woke up at 3:00 zulu and got in the Humvee to drive back to Brigade Headquarters. It was clear and beautiful outside. Got the weather and call sign information that we would need to fly today.

Took off at 4:20 zulu and headed to Kuwait. Passed Udairi and continued towards Doha. We came upon a dirt road and there were some vehicles stopped on the road. There were some people waving at us and it looked like they needed help. We passed them by and I thought about it and decided to turn around. We landed near them and Fred landed to the right of us. Someone ran up to his bird and told them that there was an accident and they needed help. Fred stayed on the ground and we took back off to get provide coordination from the air. We got a grid and called Udairi Tower and passed the information to them.

The guy was stuck in an Army truck and had severed one of his legs, partially severed the other, had a ruptured lung and possible abdominal injuries. They could not get him out of the vehicle because he was wedged in it. He was not breathing so well and was in and out of consciousness. We stood by and were waiting on a Medevac aircraft to arrive with better equipment and personnel to help this person.

We were about out of fuel and had to leave. Fred stayed for a few more minutes before leaving. Just as he left, the Medevac arrived and took the guy to a medical facility.

We shut down at Udairi and got gas. Fred joined us a few minutes later. We talked to the POW escorts and gave them a better explanation of the situation. It was unfortunate that the process was taking so long but everything happens for a reason and LTC Ball, although anxious to get to his people, did not push the issue. He let us do our job and we did.

We took off from Udairi and got back on track to finish the mission. While inbound to the hospital, we were cleared to fly directly over downtown Kuwait City. We had to remain below 300 feet so we were able to see quite a view that most people do not get to see. We flew low and at a moderate speed over the city. It was beautiful to see all the tall towers and ornate buildings. We passed one building that had some patriot batteries around it so we assume that it was something special.

We approached the Kuwaiti Armed Forces Hospital and surveyed the area to figure out how to land on the pad. Once we got around to the other side of the area, it was very apparent that we would land to the east as the landing pad had a nice cleared area for the approach. There was only room enough for one aircraft to land at a time so one landed while the other stayed in the air. Once everyone unloaded all their gear and cleared the pad, we both slid far left and right and made room to shutdown on the pad. Of course this was not the best idea because it blocked any other aircraft from landing there but we had no where else to go.

The escorts disappeared into the hospital where we were quite certain that a very happy reunion was occurring. We waited outside and found a beautiful, thick, lush grass field to roll around in. After a few hours a couple of our passengers returned (LTC Ball and the Company Commander) and we took them back to Rams. The rest of the escorts remained with the released POW’s.

The rest of the journey was uneventful and had none of the problems or detours that the first leg of the journey experienced. We landed at Rams just before sunset.

Found out that the guy from the accident died as a result of his injuries. We gave him the best chance he had for survival. If we hadn’t landed, they would have had no supplies or means of contacting anyone.