Live from Afghanistan, it's Saturday night! Or, t_b_f's on the road!

Read this Saturday and all I could think about was Three Bags.
http://online.wSportsJournalists.com/article/SB10001424052748704655004575114623837930294.html?KEYWORDS=combat+injuries

Article details some of the things that the medical people do in combat situations and what the soldiers do as well.
Like the marines who wear tourniquets around their thighs, so that if they lose a foot, they can crank a wheel and tighten it up to save their life.
Or why soldiers lose two legs and one arm in roadside bombs while on patrol. The way people walk, one arm will almost always be shielded by the body.
Just a very well done story.

 

Here's the video that goes with the piece
http://online.wSportsJournalists.com/public/page/0_0_WP_3001.html?currentPlayingLocation=8&currentlyPlayingCollection=News&currentlyPlayingVideoId={8A5159EB-2F21-4EC4-84E9-8A3256922C6E}

 

That's not my unit. That's a friend's unit in the 3rd Infantry Division. They're up north, while we're down south.

I wasn't able to watch all of the video, but I did notice those nice, pretty helicopters they have. They used to belong to my unit.

My unit returned from Afghanistan in January '09, and by May had all 12 helicopters completely rebuilt and reconditioned. Completely. The 3rd ID turds had nearly two years to reset their aircraft, but didn't do it. So, Big Army calls and says we must give our helicopters that we worked hard to rebuild (remember, we have to fly in these things, so we want them done right) to that unit, because they hadn't done the same with theirs.

So, we get their pieces of shit and have to start all over again, rebuilding and refitting and adding newly required modifications. So, we didn't have any freaking birds to fly and train with. So, as a result of their shitty commander and head maintenance officer (who were consequently fired over the whole thing), we have a bunch of crappy aircraft and untrained pilots.

I will NEVER. Mark my words. NEVER go to that unit.

But enough about that. The Golden Hour. That's the new rule.

If we bust a 15-minute launch time or 1-hour mission completion time, an email is sent up through the chain of command to the Secretary of Defense. Then, our commander gets to answer some questions. So, they've upped us to 18 ships and added more coverage at the small, outlying FOBs like the one's we're supporting near Marjah and Lashkar Gah.

 

Sorry about the rant on the 3rd ID. Touchy subject. But I hear they're doing good work up in the mountains.

 

Seriously no need to apologize. This is a great window into the war for all of us and a great outlet for you to vent. Just don't vent about Harmid Karzai. That might be constituted as political and we'll get locked.
Looks like besides quality helicopters the 3rd is also getting good cigars.
I'm just down the road from Sikorsky factory. I'll see if they have a factory outlet and we can pool our funds and ship you a few.

 

Flew for the first time, yesterday, and am currently enjoying a day off.

This airfield is the busiest thing I've ever seen.

In the hour and a half I flew, I had to (on take off) dodge taxiing fighter jets, cargo planes, people working on the runway, and Dutch cargo helicopters.

A storm blew up pretty quickly, so we had to cut the evening a little short.

 

I just posted a few photos on Facebook. I'll get more up soon.

 

3B - how does it work in Emergency. Do they hold everything so you can take right off?

 

They clear the airspace for us when we have an urgent call.

The only higher priority is another aircraft experiencing an emergency, but helicopters are unique in that we can take off from any current position in any direction. That makes it easy for us to take of quickly and avoid other, specifically fixed-wing, traffic.

 

A Marine commander set GEN McChrystal (commander of all US forces in Afghanistan) an email this week, specifically requesting us over the Air Force boys. He said we're better trained and our medics care more about the patient, rather than just tossing the patient on the a/c and hauling ass. 8)

It got forwarded down to us and is now posted on the dry erase board. I'm sure McChrystal'll find his way down to our operations.

We had a double-amputee today after an IED near Kandahar, and flew 10 missions yesterday.

Been a busy week.

 

Hey 3 was your unit called to that bus mishap earlier in week?

 

No. We're forced, right now, to split MEDEVAC duties with the Air Force, and they happened to be on "first-up" when that happened.