Camp Holloway Discussion Forum Archive 02 - 05/07/01 to 02/28/03

Keepin' on keepin' on...

Just received this from the 135th AHC E-ring... worthwhile reading.

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----- Original Message -----
From: John and Judy Crowley
To: 135th AHC Emu Email
Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2002 2:12 AM
Subject: Fw: (no subject)

Hello All,
Thought that I would forward this to let all know that our current day aviators are still getting the bloody
job done. JC

----- Original Message -----
From: larry steck
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Sent: Saturday, April 20, 2002 1:51 PM
Subject: Fw: (no subject)

To All,

I received the email below from a former Apache pilot who is now flying MH-53J/M Pave Lows in
Afghanistan. I promised him that I would widely disseminate this message. Since the press can t
seem to report the good with the bad, please forward so that the word gets out on how Apaches are
performing over there.

ATTACK!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sir,

I had the privilege of flying 2 missions with the AH-64s out of Kandahar and
wanted you to know that their presence in the formation enabled us to
successfully evacuate 2 critically-wounded soldiers from an area surrounded
by Tal / AQ forces.

As flight lead of a 2-ship of MH-53 Pave Lows, I lost my wingman due to
maintenance problems before we could get airborne. On short notice, AH-64s
were requested and immediately stepped in to provide my security enroute.
The funny twist of fate here is that I am a former AH-64 Standardization
Instructor Pilot who transferred to Air Force Special Ops 4 years ago. CW3 Rich
Chenault and I are old friends and low and behold....there he is on my wing on
both of these missions, leading my escort.

On the first mission, the ATF soldier had been badly wounded, shot 4 times in a
gun battle that still raged outside his safe house. We did our best to get to him
as quickly as possible, using my radar to guide us through some terrible
thunderstorms and rain which blocked our ingress to the target area. The
weather was complete dog-shit and those guys more than once flew into the
clouds with me in formation to get to the wounded guy. I just can t say
enough about their total dedication that night. We would have launched as
a single given the nature of the mission, but the outcome might have been
different.

Bottom line, we got to the guy, got him out....I had a surgeon on board my
aircraft who operated on him enroute and we were able to get him stable
enough to make it to a hospital in Germany. An hour later, we did the whole
thing over again and another life was saved. Hope you can pass this on to the
appropriate folks so that Rich and the other guys get our heart-felt thanks
and some well-deserved recognition. Always proud to serve with the best!

V/R,

1LT John Totty
MH-53J/M Instructor Pilot
Chief, 20SOS Weapons/ Tactics
195 Brimms St.
Hurlburt Fld, FL 32544
Comm (850) 881-4323/ 2528
DSN 641-4323/ 2528 bid

**********
Does ya proud, no?

Lump

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