Page 60 of Confessions of an Apache Pilot

“Archer zero-nine, be advised, the Bamiyan pass is closed. Clouds are at the surface.”

I stared at the radio waiting on his response. I realized I was holding my breath. I slowly exhaled, trying to keep my heart from beating out of my chest.

“Phoenix Ops Center, the pass is open. We’re heading south.”

I forced out another slow breath in anticipation. Ross didn’t even look up from his desk. He just shook his head and told Vasquez, “Nope, it's closed.”

Vasquez keyed the mic again. “Archer zero-nine, Phoenix Ops Center, that’s a negative. The pass is closed due to weather.”

I let out a disappointed sigh. Nick tensed up even further, but he hadn’t given up. He gave me a ‘wait for it’ look. The silence dragged on for far too long. Then Mark came back on. His tone had changed.

“Phoenix Ops Center. Archer zero-nine. Put the Battle Captain on.” He was speaking with exaggerated pauses. Deliberate, with repressed rage that all but sparked over the airwaves.

Ross rolled his eyes and walked over to the radio. He grabbed the mic and keyed it. “Go ahead, Archer zero-nine, this is the Battle Captain,” he said in a tired tone. He already knew he was in for a fight.

“Phoenix Battle Captain, let me be very clear. I am looking down the Bamiyan pass. I’m looking clear through to the other side. The reason I’m able to do this is because the clouds are up at two-thousand-Goddamned-feet!”

Ross actually dropped the radio mic and stepped back, blinking due to the last words being shouted so loudly. Sheppard’s fury was palpable. Ross rallied quickly, his face clouding over in anger.

“Archer Flight, the weather radar is clear, the clouds are at the surface.”

“I wish I could suck at my job, then maybe I could spend more time sucking up oxygen with the other mouth breathers.” That was Brady’s voice. “Oops, did I say that on the Ops Center frequency? My bad.”

“I hate these fucking guys. I fucking hate every last one of them.” Ross was rubbing his head in frustration. Despite the heavy emotion that was dragging through us, I had to suppress a smile. Nick had said, ‘be you’. This is what he’d meant. They were going to bully the situation into going their way.

They continued ‘accidentally’ transmitting on the wrong frequency.

“Can you imagine being so useless that you can’t tell the difference between the computer monitor and actually seeing for yourself?” That was Laura.

“I heard that that asshole’s only responsibility is to sit in the corner and hold a fucking balloon,” Artie said.

“I never saw a balloon in the Ops Center,” Brady replied.

“That’s my fucking point! He had one job, and he lost it. Now he stares at the wall, arguing with real pilots about what they can, or can’t, see. What a fucking loser,” Artie said. Enough mics were keyed at this point that we could hear the others snickering.

Ross was shaking with rage now. His face was turning an alarming shade of red. Nick was also repressing a smile. I wasn’t sure if it was because it was working, or if because for once the abuse was aimed at someone else.

I looked up at the Blue Force Tracking map. “Look, they’re flying through the pass. It must be clear.” My heart started pounding so loud that I could feel my ears throbbing. Apaches weren’t rated for instrument flight; they weren’t allowed to fly into clouds. He actually went into the clouds just to trick Ross. This was getting serious. My heart was in my throat. Fear that he and the others might get hurt was roiling through me. I didn’t want them to be injured in the pursuit of helping Sarah.

Was this how he felt every time I pulled a risky stunt? How far was he willing to take this?

“Yeah, fine. Whatever,” Ross mumbled. He waived his arm dismissively at the door. “Go. Launch. Take your guy, sorry, gal to Bagram. I’ll tell the Colonel that the weather cleared.”

We wasted no time. Hurrying out the door, we grabbed Sarah and went to the aircraft. Within ten minutes of having left the TOC we were fired up and were on our way to Bagram.

When we approached the pass, my heart started pounding in my chest again. Even through the Night Vision Goggles, it was clear to see that the clouds were a solid wall. It was a scarier sight than you would see during the day. The goggles didn’t allow you to see three-dimensional contrast. So instead of the normal fluffy clouds you could see with the naked eye, you saw a blank area in front of you. Like someone took an eraser to the horizon. There was however a small gap underneath where visibility was clear.

We dropped down to the deck, about fifty feet off the ground, and started to follow the river that fed into the pass. We slowed down, going about one-third of our normal airspeed so that we could keep up with the twists and turns. Out flying your ability to see was a dangerous stunt and not one we were willing to pull right now. Despite our urgency, we had to get there alive.

We briefly considered going up and over the clouds and mountains. We were rated for instrument flight, and anywhere else in the world we could have done it. But out here the mountains were so high that we would never make it over them. It was just too risky. Instead, we opted for our original plan, a low level path.

We hugged the river and made our way through. I kept checking the Blue Force Tracker map. I could see Sheppard’s icon blinking in and out. The signal was inconsistent this low to the ground with such high mountains surrounding us, but it would update sporadically, and I could see he was still around. I made a call to him on our air-to-air radio frequency.

“Archer Zero-Nine, Dustoff.” There was no response. I turned to Nick with a questioning look.

“We’ll try again in a few minutes, after we climb higher,” he said. “The mountains are likely interfering with the signal.”

We continued under the cloud level. We had a few close calls, where the clouds reached all the way to the river, and we were nearly forced to turn around. But luck was on our side—mostly. There were homes scattered all along the riverbank. We were able to use their lights to guide us down the river when we lost sight of it. We only had to do that a few times. Unfortunately, there was no way that we didn’t wake up the entire valley flying right over their heads at fifty feet.

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