U.S. Pilots Make Daring Escape in Iraq

Great story!



I read these things sometimes, and sometimes, it's like, "Oooh, yeah. Scary." Then I try to put myself there, try to imagine actually BEING SHOT AT (and to someone who has never been shot at, imagining being shot at is a unique experience...in everyday life, people just aren't shot at [ymmv]).

Anyway - stuck and being shot at. *shudder* Makes the stories that much more impressive. The things we humans are still capable of doing, or that we still do simply on instinct, are pretty incredible.
 
SeatClutcher said:
Great story!



I read these things sometimes, and sometimes, it's like, "Oooh, yeah. Scary." Then I try to put myself there, try to imagine actually BEING SHOT AT (and to someone who has never been shot at, imagining being shot at is a unique experience...in everyday life, people just aren't shot at [ymmv]).

Anyway - stuck and being shot at. *shudder* Makes the stories that much more impressive. The things we humans are still capable of doing, or that we still do simply on instinct, are pretty incredible.
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:yeahthat: Indeed! They are true American heros! I hope the army gives them a little R and R after that.
 
That's awesome stuff!

Believe it or not, that's a practiced extraction technique on the Apache, and it has been done a few times over the last couple of years. Before Iraq, Apache pilots demanded to be able to practice that technique, but were usually denied because of the risk factor. I'm pretty sure that now they are allowed to practice it.

And man would it suck to be stuck on the ground sans helicopter!:eek:
 
It goes to show you what our soldiers will do to protect and help each other out. The co pilot could have easily kept his seat. Thats what legends are made of.......I am sure the Apache went hunting after the drop off and I hope he found his target.
 
I think the report said that they went back and destroyed the downed helicopter. I'm at work so I can't really listen to it again - just ducking in here for a second. I am assuming that they destroy the downed helicopter so that our enemies can't get ahold of our secrets and technology. Would that be a fair assumption?
 
SkyCougar said:
I think the report said that they went back and destroyed the downed helicopter. I'm at work so I can't really listen to it again - just ducking in here for a second. I am assuming that they destroy the downed helicopter so that our enemies can't get ahold of our secrets and technology. Would that be a fair assumption?
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Exactly right.
 
Man, they had to be pretty deaf by the time they got on the ground with both the engines behind them and the wind!
 
(Based on a story written by Cessnaflyer)

Wow, what a day!

My copilot and I were flying up to meet insurgents at their camp to target, shoot, and BBQ. We stop in one of their fields to pull off a few rounds through the turret and after we are done shooting we go to the next crest of the hill and find a helo that crash landed in the valley of the field. We went over and found out it was an American crew shot down. Their helo wouldn't work so we used our helo to give them a ride back to base. Very cool helo crew must have been their lucky day because you usually don't find a helo with two pilots in it in the middle of freaking nowhere!
 
Jesh, I have the displeasure of knowing both Apache pilots involved in this all to well. Doesn't suprise me one bit that either one of them would pull something like this off.

The extraction technique used to get the downed pilots out is called a spur ride, from personal experience its really not that bad, granted it was only at a OGE hover, not 100 KTAS.
 
Low_Level_Hell said:
Jesh, I have the displeasure of knowing both Apache pilots involved in this all to well. Doesn't suprise me one bit that either one of them would pull something like this off.

The extraction technique used to get the downed pilots out is called a spur ride, from personal experience its really not that bad, granted it was only at a OGE hover, not 100 KTAS.
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Is this your attempt at humor, or are you always this pleasant? :sarcasm:
Did we forget to use our little icons to explain the tone of our post? I will give you the benefit of the doubt, because on occasion when I'm posting in a hurry, I forget to use them.

Or as your signature says, are you the greatest? :rolleyes:
 
SkyCougar said:
Is this your attempt at humor, or are you always this pleasant? :sarcasm:
Did we forget to use our little icons to explain the tone of our post? I will give you the benefit of the doubt, because on occasion when I'm posting in a hurry, I forget to use them.

Or as your signature says, are you the greatest? :rolleyes:
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I'll vouch for LLH - I don't think he was talking ill of his Apache breatheren. He's rough around the edges, but hey, he IS an Apache pilot. ;) Plus he's back from Iraq on his mid tour leave.

His sig is a line from the worst movie of all time: Firebirds.
 
My apologies, I did write the post in a hurry and I can see how it may have come off in a completely different tone than what I meant. I’m very impressed and proud of what they did. I was just surprised to see two guys I work with being discussed, one of them happens to be a very good friend of mine. I’m glad to see the good things what we do in Iraq is still important enough to be discussed by y’all.

These two pilots should get the DFC! I don’t think Jake Preston himself could do what they did.
 
Low_Level_Hell said:
My apologies, I did write the post in a hurry and I can see how it may have come off in a completely different tone than what I meant. I’m very impressed and proud of what they did. I was just surprised to see two guys I work with being discussed, one of them happens to be a very good friend of mine. I’m glad to see the good things what we do in Iraq is still important enough to be discussed by y’all.

These two pilots should get the DFC! I don’t think Jake Preston himself could do what they did.
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No worries LLH. I kind of thought that may be the case, but I was just making sure. It would make me a little testy if I thought someone was dissing our guys in Iraq. But since you are one of them as well, let me take this time to say, "Thank you for your service!" :rawk:
 
LLH,

I thought all gun bunnies were automatically transfered to a utility unit if they ever made a reference to "THAT" movie.:nana2:

FWIW, wasn't there another crew early on that did this, too? The CP was outside strapped in with his M4 returning fire or something with one wounded in front and the other strapped on? Also, there was a story about the Brits running a resuce with some Royal Marines strapped on. There's some footage of that somewhere...

Ol' Jake was a CW2? and how much was that car?:D

Hasta!!
 
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