It started like this...we had to drop off election ballots in a place called Jawand. It lies at the bottom of a 1500 to 2000 foot deep canyon. The local area has some not very nice people, the kind that don't think Afghans should be able to vote for themselves...(and ESPECIALLY the women). So to make sure we made it there and back safely...the Italians escorted us with Mangusta gunships. That was cool, because that meant they did most of the mission planning and briefing for the flight.
The run in to the target, the Landing Zone, was about a 6 mile run through the canyon.
Tomahawk 1 led us into the canyon, diving over 2000 feet into the canyon...we pushed our dump truck's nose over and tried to stay with him.
You can almost see the little speck in the lower middle part of the picture right above the river...he dropped like a rock...
So we dove in after him and pushed it down to 50 feet when he made the first left turn, and all I saw was the top of his helicotper... because he was in a 90 degree left bank, I said 'I think that first turn is going to be kinda tight'
We made it in...it was a Star Wars canyon, no room to turn around...just press ahead or pull everything you have and climb out. No problem. It was awesome...
We passed this quaint little scenic village along the beautiful river...as we flew over, I heard a really loud BOOM! Right outside my open window...I looked over at the other pilot, "Did you hear that?!"
He said "I think it was the cockpit door slamming shut behind us"...I said "It was already shut!"...then we said..."OH MAN, was that our wingman crashing into the canyon wall?!?!" A frantic radio call confirmed Charlie 2 was one turn behind us and not a smoking hole.
So we pressed on to the LZ. It was truly spectacular.
We lined up for the approach...there were spectators everywhere! We landed and started unloading. The election officials were there to meet us and help with unloading. The Mangustas flew overhead, one low and one up very high out side the canyon keeping watch.
The Italian Colonel gave the village its own little airshow....we liked it too. Unloading was supposed to take 15 to 20 minutes....like usual, it took twice as long. It's always total chaos, even when you tell the Afghan pilots, we have to hurry, our escorts are running out of gas! I asked the Colonel to shoot a few rounds overhead to speed things up...
All the boxes, tables, chairs, and ballots were FINALLY unloaded. We called the Mangustas to tell them we were ready to for takeoff...the led us out, we followed Tomahawk 1 back the way we came. As we rounded a bend in the canyon, I said "that's were we heard that bang"...followed by two every loud BOOMs!!! We radioed to the formation that we were taking fire and climbed up and out of the canyon, Charlie 2 did the same thing, Tomahawk 1 immediately performed a very aggressive course reversal and dove into the area were we'd just been shot at...and the saw a 4th RPG being shot at us.
So...oh yeah, the first BOOM we heard on the way in...it was an RPG air burst. ...ooooops. Just the cabin door slamming shut? He's the one that said it...'My bad!"
Guess maybe we should have picked a different route to fly back?
Speaking of flying back...we still had another load of election materials to take out there. While we were eating lunch, gassing our helicopters and loading the second load of stuff...(well, by 'we', I mean the Afghans left to go eat lunch, and 'we' loaded the cargo and fueled the helicotpers...our Afghan crew members tend to dissappear when it comes time to load, no worries though, they show up right when we're done so they can tell us we did something wrong)...Anyway, while 'we' were loading and such, the Italian Colonel came over and said, with a swagger and a smile, "what a great day! only 4 RPG's...no problem! It was great wasn't it?!" He meant it! He wasn't even being sarcastic!
He said "but maybe we should go back in a different way? What do you think?" ...Yes please!
And Afghan Army officer came over to tell us "I told you not to fly that way!". Um.....right. He gave us a list of villages, written in Dari on a napkin and told us they were safe, it was okay to fly over them. That was one translation, the other was, these villages are dangerous don't fly over them. Awesome! We did not have our best interpreter with us that day. We pulled our maps...90% of Afghans can't read maps...he fell into that category. Oh, and all of our maps written in English. So we went with what we'd planned. Okay, Okay....he was right! We shouldn't have flown that way!
So there we were, loaded up and ready for round two! There was a US State department official there at the airport we were using...she asked to come along, since she was a she, we said "sure, hop in". The Afghan flight engineer let her sit with him on the middle bench...
The other pilot took this picture...I was driving, don't worry I was still looking where I was going mostly. State Department chick rolled with us with no body armor and thought it was cool we'd been shot at. She heard the BOOM's too...and she was ready to back for the second time.
This is the crew...The Italians gunship drivers are good stuff. So, in the last post we joked about the meaning of ISAF. I stand corrected...these guys are the real deal. Their Colonel is the old school kind of warrior that is rare these days. When we flew up for the mission to Qal-E Now, he flew the CH-47 Chinook, when we all landed (2 Mangustas, 2 Mi-17's and the Chinook), he climbed into the lead Mangusta and flew as mission commander and flight lead. It has been a pleasure and an honor to fly with these guys. They take care of us, watch over us and are extremely patient and understanding with the Afghan Flying Circus.
The end of a long day...it's Miller time, or Tuborg and some crappy Non-Alcoholic malt nastiness.
Oh yeah....we checked for damage after the RPG attack and did not find any...until the next morning. There was a small whole in one of the main rotor blades. No problem, have Orange Fanta can and SupreGlue, will travel...
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