Page 15 of Confessions of an Apache Pilot

I cut him off, “Never mind that, she’s flying right over top of the shitheads. Get your eyes out in front of her. They might open fire at any moment.” I keyed the radio and called Laura. “Two-nine, this is Zero-nine,” I called out to her and Brady, “MED is doing their own thing. Put your eyes behind them, we’re watching the front.” Laura was two-nine, being the ranking officer Brady would default to her call sign.

I scanned the area ferociously; I knew that the shooting would start any minute. I risked a glance at the MED aircraft, they were nearly there and still hauling ass. I had to admire the approach and landing. She brought the aircraft screaming in, and at the last minute pitched the nose up to the sky to slow down rapidly and practically slammed the aircraft down. No time wasted.

What was even more impressive was that the area was barely bigger than the helicopter. That type of landing took real skill. This was the reason I’d chosen her and her team. They had a reputation for being the best. You didn’t get that kind of reputation by standing by like a timid mouse. Admiration and irritation mixed within me as she maneuvered her aircraft to the ground. I knew I’d been right to pick her, but I also knew she was going to make my job harder. Her willingness to disregard her own safety meant that we would have to be doubly protective of her on missions, like now.

I kept my eyes on them, Dozer’s team was moving him in now. I keyed the radio again, “Game time people. They’re moving him.” I switched frequencies and called the MED, “Dustoff, be advised, shooting’s going to start any second now.”

As if on cue, a barrage of bullets opened up from the west. Before I could say anything, Artie yelled from the front, “I’m on it, turn left. Clear to fire?” The gunner always asked for clearance before pulling the trigger. With friendlies and enemies in such close proximity to each other, we had to double check each other, otherwise you might accidentally send bullets toward people on your own team.

I glanced down at his video. The kid was quick. He saw the round streak across his screen and had followed them to the shooter and acquired him in seconds. “Clear to fire,” I told him. The aircraft vibrated to the thundering of the cannon. He let a barrage of explosive bullets out. I keyed the radio “Dustoff, your approach path is compromised, you can’t depart the same direction. Take off and break east. Depart to the east and south.” It was a longer route out of this valley, but there were no enemies in those directions.

“Roger that,” her voice had this saucy edge coming over the radio. It was probably meant as a growl, with begrudging obedience. In a different situation I would have clung to that voice, pushed her to hear more of that sultry defiance. For now, I was just grateful she was doing as I’d asked and trusting me to guide her.

The gun thundered, shaking the aircraft as Artie sent three barrages of 30mm fire into the sniper. The shooter evaporated under the explosive rounds. He switched his video to a wider field of view and was already scanning for the next shooter. “I got another one. Shit, he has an RPG and he’s aiming at the MEDEVAC! Bank left, bank left! Arming missiles!” he yelled.

There was no time to question. No time to worry. I couldn’t afford the luxury of worrying about Jen, of thinking about the danger she was in. Emotions took a back seat to the job we needed to do in order to keep everyone alive. In battle, emotion made you reckless and more often than not, got you, or someone else, killed.

Following Artie’s directive, I pulled hard on the controls and sent our Apache screaming hard to the left. My helicopter shook violently as the missile detached itself and raced through the air toward its intended target. I could see the bastard now for myself. He was firing again.

CHAPTER 9

Jen

“Captain, we’re two minutes out,” Nick said, as we crossed over into the valley. “Looks like the Apaches are right overhead.”

“Archer Zero-Nine, Dustoff, we are through the west valley and inbound to the landing zone, two minutes,” I called over the radio. “Can you see the landing zone?” I asked Nick.

He was searching through his night vision goggles. “I see the flares, I have it.”

I keyed the radio to Ty, our point of contact with the Green Beret team. “Jaguar Eight, Dustoff, sixty seconds out, we have the landing zone in sight.”

“Dustoff, we are two hundred meters to the east, we’ll be moving as soon as you set down.

“Two hundred meters? Can you see them? Look to the east,” I told Nick. Two hundred meters was too far to carry a critical patient.

“I can see their InfraRed Flashers, they’re at our one o’clock.” All ground teams had infrared flashers during night operations. We could see them flashing from miles away under our night vision goggles, but under the naked eye you would never catch sight of them. It was one of the great things about flying at night, we always had a way of keeping track of our people.

“Dustoff, Archer one-nine, the landing zone is not safe, need you to push south until we can clear it.” Sheppard’s command startled me, I was already laser focused on the new place I was intending to land. The fact that he wanted me to break off was unacceptable.

“Negative Archer, patient is critical. We don’t have time to wait, we’re bypassing the landing zone and going straight to the patient.” We didn’t have time to argue. If we couldn’t wait for the team to carry him two hundred yards we certainly didn’t have time to go fly in circles somewhere else.

I made a slight turn to the right and started scanning for the strobes. Once I spotted their location, I made a decision. There was enough space near their position, barely. Blowing past the original landing zone, I got as close to them as I could. I pulled back on the controls to raise the nose high while simultaneously slamming the power lever down to rapidly decelerate. As we approached the new spot, I let the tail touch the ground and used it as an anchor to catch the rest of our deceleration and let the nose slam down. We were maybe twenty meters from Ty’s team.

As soon as we touched down Sarah was out of the bird and helping to grab the litter carrying the injured soldier. They had been running to us before we had set down. Sarah secured him into the back, and she gave me the thumbs up as Karolyn slid the side door shut. The rest of the Green Beret team was already moving away from the helicopter, so that we could take off again. I grabbed the flight controls, ready to pull in all the power we had and get off the ground. The time from touching down to right now was maybe a minute.

Sheppard’s voice came over the radio. “Dustoff, be advised, shooting’s going to start any second now.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” I muttered.

I saw Nick shrug out of the corner of my eye. “Nothing good,” he said, eyes scanning all around us for whatever the Apaches were worried about.

A barrage of bullets answered my question. The sound of gunfire was so loud that we could hear it over the noise of the helicopter. The hairs on the nape of my neck stood on end. “Shit, time to go. We’ll go forward and haul ass back the way we came.” I started to pull up on the controls, the aircraft rising with it.

Sheppard came on again, “Dustoff, your approach path is compromised, you can’t depart the same direction. Take off and break east. Depart to the east and south.”

“Roger that,” I growled over the radio.

Irritation flickered through me. I was about to call him back and tell him that we didn’t have the time when the whole mountainside to the west became a series of explosions. My annoyance melted away as shock and an inherent need to stay alive took over. I pulled all the power we had and banked hard to the east. As we moved, through my night vision goggles I saw a streak of smoke shoot past my left door and continue on in front of us. It ended with an explosion into the ground.

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