Mariners Head Home Following Rescue At Sea

From Enterprise Carrier Strike Group Public Affairs

USS ENTERPRISE, At Sea (NNS) -- Ten mariners were transferred Aug. 10 to the Iranian navy for repatriation following a rescue at-sea.

Guided-missile destroyer USS James E. Williams (DDG 95) rescued the men from their burning vessel in the Gulf of Oman, Aug 8.

The vessel was flying an Iranian flag. The mariners - who claim to be Iranian - were well cared for and received medical treatment aboard James E. Williams. They were transported to aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65), where they received further medical treatment before being transported back  to James E. Williams while awaiting repatriation efforts.

James E. Williams is currently deployed as part of the Enterprise Carrier Strike Group to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility conducting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts.

USS James E. Williams Transfers Rescued Mariners to Iranian Vessel

By Enterprise Carrier Strike Group Public Affairs

USS JAMES E. WILLIAMS, At Sea (NNS) -- USS JAMES E. WILLIAMS, At Sea - Guided-missile destroyer USS James E. Williams transferred 10 Iranian mariners rescued from a burning dhow Aug. 8 to an Iranian vessel in the Gulf of Oman Aug. 10.

Members of Williams' visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) team transferred the mariners from the destroyer to an Iranian-flagged dhow for repatriation.

Williams (DDG 95) rescued the 10 mariners in the Gulf of Oman after they were forced to abandon their burning vessel.

Following the rescue, the mariners were taken to Williams, where they received initial medical treatment for injuries sustained during the fire and subsequent evacuation.

They were then transported to aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) for further medical treatment before being returned to Williams for today's repatriation.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

James E. Williams is currently deployed as part of the Enterprise Carrier Strike Group to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility conducting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts.

For further questions, please contact U.S. Naval Forces Central Command Public Affairs Office.

 Phone: 011-973-1785-4027 or E-mail: navcentpao@me.navy.mil>

Face of Defense: Soldier Earns Medal for Saving German’s Life

By C. Todd Lopez
Army News Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2011 – Army Staff Sgt. Peter Woken was uniquely honored recently for proving that, in combat, it doesn't matter what languages your allies speak, every soldier who fights alongside you is like a brother.

The German government highlighted that reality of war Dec. 8 when German Ambassador to the United States Peter Ammon presented Woken with the German Medal of Honor for Gallantry in Action -- an award similar to the American Silver Star.

Addressing the noncommissioned officer’s wife and two sons who attended the ceremony, Ammon told the family an entire nation is thankful for Woken’s actions in Afghanistan which saved the life of German Cpl. Tim Focken.

"The German government and the German people are deeply grateful for your husband and your father," Ammon said.

Ammon pinned the medal on Woken's uniform. The sergeant, now part of the Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Hood, Texas, is the first American to receive the medal on American soil. Seven other U.S. soldiers involved in saving Focken's life also received the medal, though it was presented to them in theater by German Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière.

Woken had said that he views the recognition as confirmation of what soldiers know about their comrades -- that soldiering together unites servicemen across languages and nationalities.

"Even though Germany is honoring me this way, I think what they are conveying is that we are all brothers," Woken said. "This type of award generally doesn't go to Americans. It will go to Germans on German soil. We feel the same way. They are fighting the same enemy that we are, and we are all brothers."

To an infantryman, uniform, language and nationality make no difference if you're fighting on the same side, Focken said.

"We've had a lot of battles, and we've fought side-by-side with 10th Mountain," he said. "There was never a discussion of who is there to help who and to save who. It's basically like brothers, and if anybody needed help, nationality doesn't matter. You're there to help."

Focken was shot Oct. 7, 2010 when his German ground patrol at Qala-ye Zai, Afghanistan, came under enemy fire. After receiving immediate medical assistance from German army medics, Focken boarded an American Black Hawk helicopter where flight medic Woken tended to the injured soldier's wounds during travel to a military hospital.

The action in Afghanistan that earned him the award was typical of what combat medics are called upon to do as many as 10 times a day. Woken said he has performed so many rescues that he's lost count.

"I had stopped counting at 357," he said. "At that point, it was becoming kind of redundant to even count."

Woken, a Tacoma, Wash., native, said teams like his are on call for 48 hours at a time with 24 hours of down time between. On that day in Afghanistan, his team was waiting in a "relaxed state," he said, until they got the call to do a rescue. Then, he said, "We went from basically zero to 100 in a matter of minutes."

"We were flying about as fast as we could go to the scene," he said. "We were told there were troops in contact. Once we got there, we overflew the scene one time. Normally we will do a high recon and then a low recon. And we only did one low recon and we landed. I guess our pilot chose to not do a full landing. We took off due to safety reasons."

The crew decided quickly to land again to pick up the injured German soldier; personal risk is not part of the equation, he said, when you are trying to save somebody's life.

"A flight medic shouldn't feel like they are taking a risk whatsoever," Woken said. "You have to think that God has your back, and you have the back of the soldier on the ground."

The Black Hawk stayed on the ground for less than a minute before Focken, who had been leading a team of three soldiers on the ground, was on board, Woken said.

"Our job was to go into the town, Qala-ye Zai, to do recon," Focken said. "We got there early so our company commander could do [intelligence gathering] and recon. My three soldiers and I were on the compound roof securing the perimeter. About a half hour after we got into Qala-ye Zai, heavy fighting broke out, with the Taliban insurgents firing. After about one and a half hours of intense fighting, a sharpshooter picked me off the roof."

Focken was hit in the left shoulder.

"I was talking to one of my guys when I got shot," he said. "It felt like a bolt of electricity going through my arm."

He was able to maintain order among his soldiers even after he was shot, and his soldiers applied aid to try to stop his bleeding. Once on the ground, a German medic tended to his wound, and then he was able to get to the helicopter.

"His attitude was probably one of the best I've seen out of any injured soldier," Woken said. "He was still in top physical condition. He was able to jump into the helicopter even though it was three and a half feet off the ground. He was able to speak with me and explain how he was feeling. And at the end of the mission, he walked off the helicopter."

Both Woken and Focken were present at the ceremony -- brought together for the event by the German government. The two had not been in contact with each other since Focken departed Woken's Black Hawk in Afghanistan in 2010.

"Normally I'll get my patient, I'll take care of them on the aircraft, then they walk away. I never hear or see from them again,” Woken said. “This morning, I got to meet Corporal Tim Focken and start a relationship. It provides a lot of closure for me."

For Focken, he got a chance to say "thank you" to one of the American soldiers that helped save his life. "It's a great thing to say ‘thank you’ personally to Sergeant Woken and to his crew that saved me," he said.

Ammon said the award ceremony was about more than just a medal. He said it was about an enduring friendship between two allied nations.

"Today is more than just paying tribute to the bravery of one courageous serviceman who saved a fellow soldier," Ammon said. "Today, we also celebrate the lasting vitality of our alliance in challenging times -- an alliance that has roots going back to the American revolution of 1776, and an alliance that will remain a cornerstone of our security well into the 21st century."

Aeromedical Evacuation Saves Lives in Afghanistan

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, May 6, 2011 – An aeromedical evacuation capacity unrivaled anywhere in the world is saving the lives of wounded warriors in Afghanistan, said the officer here who oversees the effort at the combat theater’s busiest aeromedical evacuation point.

Equipment and procedures are being improved continually to move wounded warriors to progressively more sophisticated levels of care in Afghanistan and ultimately, in the United States, said Air Force Lt. Col. Kathleen Flarity, commander of the 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight’s operations here.

During the Vietnam War, it typically took more than a month to move wounded troops to advanced treatment facilities in the United States, she said. Today, it’s down to as little as three days.

“That’s not the goal, to get them home,” she said at her office in her unit’s compound, known as “Evac-istan.”

The goal is “to get them what they need, when they need it,” said Flarity, an Air Force Reserve nurse practitioner deployed from Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. “That is huge, and that has changed a lot.”

Flarity attributed much of that change to initiatives adopted since 9/11: the use of multiple air platforms to move wounded warriors; state-of-the-art medical equipment able to operate in demanding conditions and high altitudes; and critical care air transport teams specially qualified to transport even the most critically wounded warriors, among them.

Air Force HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters, operated by elite Air Force expeditionary rescue squadrons, have joined Army “Dustoff” helicopter crews -- nicknamed for their motto, “Dedicated, Unhesitating Service to Our Fighting Forces” -- to evacuate wounded warriors from remote forward operating bases and combat outposts.

And gone are the days when aeromedical evacuation crews had to wait for a specific air platform to fly patients for care at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and then on to facilities in the United States. Now, they can use a variety of aircraft: the C-17 Globemaster III, C-130 Hercules and KC-135 Stratotanker.

“We are universally qualified” on the different platforms, Flarity said. “So essentially, any time there is an aircraft available, we can take our teams and our equipment and jump onto any aircraft. … This opens up a lot more aircraft availability.”

The C-17, with its large cargo bay and ability to move the most patients, is a favorite among aeromedical evacuation crews. Specifically designed to include aeromedical evacuation in its mission set, “it’s big, bright and spacious,” Flarity said, with many built-in amenities such as medical-grade oxygen and buttons patients can push to call for assistance.

Although built for air-to-air refueling, KC-135s have become aeromedical evacuation workhorses in Afghanistan. They don’t provide the temperature control of C-17s and require crews to carry aboard green boxes of liquid oxygen that converts to gaseous oxygen, Flarity said, but the KC-135s offer much-welcomed and much-needed capacity.

New medical equipment has improved the process. A pump introduced during the initial stages of the Iraq war enables patients to administer their own pain medication, within prescribed limits, and locally administered anesthesia is provided through strategically placed catheters.

A new liquid oxygen system is among new technologies being explored to give aeromedical evacuation crews additional capability.

In these and other improvements, Flarity said, the emphasis has been on common systems across the services that don’t need to be changed as patients move through different levels of care. “That way, I can take your pump and give you back mine, instead of changing out all the tubing and pieces and parts,” she explained.

The presidentially mandated electronic health record system is another development making steady progress across the aeromedical evacuation system. The transition has been relatively smooth for long missions to Ramstein Air Base in Germany and Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Flarity said. But during 20-minute flights between forward operating bases in Afghanistan flown under low-light conditions, she acknowledged, it poses more challenges.

Challenges are nothing new to aeromedical evacuation crews, Flarity noted. Operating in conditions that include noise, vibration, air-pressure fluctuations, turbulence, and sometimes enemy fire, today’s crews are the most experienced and battle-tested the Air Force has ever seen, she said.

Flarity called these “rainbow crews” -- a mix of active-duty, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard members -- the backbone of the system committed to doing what it takes to get wounded warriors home safely.

“Ultimately, what we do is about those soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines [and] Coast Guardsmen … is for the warrior at the battlefront,” she said. “And because we are here, it allows them to focus on their mission, … knowing we have their backs.”

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Latresia Pugh, the mission management technician on a recent aeromedical evacuation flight to Andrews, said she feels honored to be able to provide that support. “These are our brothers and sisters, and we want to take care of them,” she said.

“These guys are risking their lives for us, and we have to get them back to their families safely,” agreed Air Force Staff Sgt. Napolean Gifford, a critical care air transport respiratory therapist from Douglas, Ga. “That is the very least we can do for them.”

Air Force Maj. Gerry Martinez, a flight nurse deployed to Ramstein from Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, said he’s often touched to hear his patients express appreciation to the aeromedical evacuation crews.

“They are so grateful that we are here taking care of them,” he said. “But what I say to them is, ‘Thank YOU.’ These guys are the ones making the ultimate sacrifices.”

Air Force 1st Lt. Donna Olson, a Mississippi Air National Guardsman who served as medical crew director during a recent mission transporting 24 patients from Ramstein Air Base, acknowledged that transporting wounded warriors, many younger than her own children, can sometimes be emotionally tough.

“But I love this job, and wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world,” she said. “I have the gratification of helping them through all this and returning them home so they have the opportunity to live full lives.”

Air Rescue Team Retrieves 'Fallen Angel'

By Air Force Capt. Erick Saks

455th Air Expeditionary Wing

KAPISA PROVINCE, Afghanistan, May 2, 2011 – Airmen from Bagram Airfield's 83rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron performed a daring mountainside rescue here April 23 after an Army helicopter crashed in a hostile valley.

The airmen, deployed from the 33rd Rescue Squadron at Kadena Air Base, Japan, and the 212th Rescue Squadron at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, recovered an injured pilot and a fallen hero while often coming under heavy fire.

The mission began before daybreak, when the squadron's tactical operations center received a report of a “fallen angel” -- the term that signifies a downed aircraft. Within 10 minutes, the Pedros of the 83rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron had two HH-60 helicopters airborne and en route to the site where a coalition helicopter reportedly was down.

The helicopters -- Pedro 83 and Pedro 84 -- quickly flew toward the crash site, about 20 miles from Bagram, and held off about five miles away as they linked up with the other air assets in the area, including F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets and AH-64 Apache and OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters.

"When we arrived, one of the Apaches already had eyes on the aircraft, and he lased the pilot so we could see him," said Air Force Capt. Louis Nolting, Pedro 84 copilot. "At this time, we had thought that the pilots were collocated and that they'd egressed together from the aircraft."

One pilot had climbed several hundred feet to a ridge above the aircraft wreckage. This ridge is where Pedro 83, the lead aircraft, used its hoist to insert its team composed of Air Force Maj. Jesse Peterson, combat rescue officer; Air Force Tech. Sgt. Chris Uriarte, team leader; and Air Force Tech. Sgt. Shane Hargis, team member.

"Once lead got the [pararescue jumpers] on the ground, we found out the pilots had split up," said Air Force Maj. Philip Bryant, Pedro 84 pilot. "The pilot who had egressed told the PJs that the other pilot was unconscious and at the crash site."

The PJs relayed the information about the second pilot still with the downed helicopter, and Pedro 84 was directed to insert PJs near the wreckage.

Based on the information, Air Force Staff Sgt. Zachary Kline, pararescue assistant team leader, and Air Force Staff Sgt. Bill Cenna, pararescue team member, began preparing their gear for their insertion near the crash site. At about 180 feet, the hoist was significantly higher than their standard descent due to the surrounding terrain.

"It was the longest hoist I've ever been on," Kline said. "When we got on the ground, I was still under the impression that we were close to the other team, so we took a knee. We were about 50 meters from the crash site, and we didn't see the other guys, so we made our way to the site."

The team approached the pilot and found he had died. The PJs immediately began preparing the fallen hero to be hoisted out.

Overhead, Pedro 84's flight engineer had retrieved the hoist cable and was getting back into position when the aircraft began to take fire.

"Not more than two seconds after forward momentum was executed, … [we notices] pop shots," said Air Force Staff Sgt. William Gonzalez, Pedro 84’s gunner. "The first thing we start doing is checking to see where it's coming from and checking everybody out. And, maybe five seconds later, the [flight engineer] says 'I'm hit.'"

In addition to manning one of the Pave Hawk's .50-caliber machine guns and monitoring the aircraft's systems, the flight engineer runs the hoist on the aircraft. Air Force Tech. Sgt. James Davis was the engineer on Pedro 84 when it was first engaged by enemy fire.

"I had just turned off the hoist, and I was sliding back into my seat when the round came through the helicopter and hit me in the leg," he said. "They asked, 'Are you all right, Jim?' and I said, 'No I'm bleeding pretty good here.'"

Pedro 84 rejoined Pedro 83, but determined they were no longer mission capable after the injury to the flight engineer. They headed back to Bagram to get care for the injured flight engineer and to pick up another engineer to take Davis' place.

Gonzalez immediately moved over to provide medical care for Davis.

"I looked back, and the first thing I saw was a pool of blood by his seat," Gonzalez said. "I went over to assess his situation. I saw that he was still conscious and saw that he was still breathing. I put his tourniquet right above the wound. After I had it on, I went over to the PJs’ medical kit and grabbed some gauze, and I wrapped it around the leg, trying to absorb as much blood as I could."

When the Pave Hawk landed at Bagram, the gunner, copilot and a Marine Corps lieutenant who saw they needed assistance off-loaded Davis, who was brought into the Craig Joint Theater Hospital emergency room.

The flight engineer said the timing of the shot is what made the difference between a serious wound and a potentially fatal one.

"I had been in the doorway with no way of protecting myself to get the PJs on the ground," Davis said. "I got the cable up, and as soon as I slid from the doorway to the seat, the round came in. If I was still in the doorway, the round would have hit me right the in body armor or below it, and I'd have been in much worse shape."

As they cared for their injured crew member, Pedro 84's crew also worked to find a replacement for Davis so they could get back to their PJs on the ground.

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Heath Culbertson was sleeping at Bagram Airfield when Davis was shot, and he was awakened up by frantic knocking on his door.

"They said, 'Get up, we need you in the [tactical operations center] now,'" Culbertson said. "I asked, ‘What's going on?’ and they said Davis had been shot."

"When we taxied over from the [refueling point], Culbertson had just walked out and was ready to go," Bryant said. "He came, got into the aircraft, got hooked up, and we took off. The crew swap only took about four minutes."

The reality of the situation hit Culbertson as he approached the aircraft.

"As soon as I got underneath the rotor, I saw the blood," he said. "It was pretty surreal. I'd seen blood before in the cabin, but never from any of our own guys. That was pretty shocking to me."

Back on the ridge above the crash site, the three-man pararescue team treated the pilot, pulled security and prepared for extraction. As team commander, Peterson coordinated for pick-up and passed along information about the situation on the ground.

"My job as team member was as the medic," Hargis said. "I checked over the pilot on the ground. He was fully alert and oriented with stable vital signs, and he had a laceration on his jaw."

Overhead, Pedro 83 swept the area, searching for the enemy.

"As we came around, I saw rounds come up, so I returned fire," said Air Force Senior Airman Justin Tite, Pedro 83's gunner.

The crew determined the enemy fire originated from a tree between the two PJ teams on the ground.

"There were no other trees on the slope except this one huge tree right in the middle between the two teams, and that's where they were hiding," Tite said.

Seeing that his teams were split up by enemy positions, Uriarte realized they were not going to be able to walk to the PJs below. As the enemy fire began picking up, Air Force Capt. Joshua Hallada, Pedro 83's pilot, decided they needed to get the PJ team and pilot off the ground as soon as possible.

"So we set ourselves up to come in for a hover similar when we first [inserted the team], although much lower," Hallada said. "Being that it was a little lighter now, we brought it into a 20-foot hover over our team and the survivor."

As the pararescuemen and the engineer worked to get the survivor into the aircraft, enemy fire increased, threatening Pedro 83.

"The team started to hook up the survivor, and that's when the pilot started to call rounds off the 1 o'clock," said Air Force Senior Airman Michael Price, Pedro 83 flight engineer. "Someone called the go-around at that point, and I sheared the cable to stop from dragging them through the rocks."

Price used the guillotine-type device built into the hoist to cut the cable and prevent injury to the airmen below.

"I had the strap around the survivor, and I was hooked into the cable," Hargis said. "I gave them the signal to bring up the cable, and I noticed a little more slack coming out. I thought maybe he didn't see me, so I gave him the signal again, and the next thing I know, the cable's sheared."

Hallada said he didn’t realize at first that Hargis had cut the cable. "We came back around,” he said, “and I was setting up to go lower and further back into the rocks so that we could prevent them from hitting us to try to get them out again. On short final, I was informed that we didn't have a hoist. He had told me several times -- I was just overwhelmed with other stuff."

Pedro 83 went around for yet another pass as the crew tried to figure out how to proceed.

"I determined we needed to one-wheel hover," Hallada said. "It's when you just set a wheel down on the rock next to them and hover the rest of the aircraft at the same time, allowing them just to jump on."

The maneuver took 10 seconds at most, with the PJs and survivor jumping onto the aircraft, followed by a speedy takeoff. However, the aircraft took damage from enemy fire as it lifted off.

"We went back into our overwatch patterns, realizing we'd been hit at that point," Hallada said, “and we started trying to figure out what to do next, seeing as we didn't have a hoist and we knew the lower [landing zone] was hot."

Pedro 83 stayed to provide overwatch for the remaining PJs and pilot despite the damage to their aircraft; however, running low on fuel, they were relieved to hear that Pedro 84 was on its way back.

"We left for [Forward Operating Base] Morales-Frazier planning to get gas, ammo and return," Hallada said. However, once we landed, the situation caused us to shut down and evaluate further."

At Morales-Frazier, Uriarte and Hargis transferred the injured helicopter pilot to the field surgical team while Peterson ran to the tactical operations center to coordinate with the ground force commanders. Meanwhile, Price looked over the aircraft to examine the extent of the damage. At first glance, he said, the damage appeared minimal. But then the airman checked the main transmission fluid.

"It was pretty much bone dry," Price said. "I told the captain we couldn't fly. We really didn't want to create another [personnel recovery] event out there."

The Pedro 83 crew began working with their operations team at the tactical operations center to get back into the fight. This entailed Air Force 1st Lt. Elliott Milliken, Pedro 83's copilot, coordinating a ride back to Bagram to pick up their spare aircraft.

There, the crew quickly loaded into the fresh Pave Hawk with additional pararescuemen and a small maintenance team, and they headed back to Morales-Frazier.

Pedro 84 arrived back on the scene to find significant airpower had joined the fight to protect the pararescue team and pilot still on the ground.

"While we were away, the A-10s had shown up," Bryant said. "We train with the A-10s to do this -- combat search and rescue. When we got back out there, there were three Apaches and four A-10s operating in the area."

The enemies in the large tree continued to threaten the aircraft and ground personnel until the A-10s and Apaches engaged the target. "The A-10s were using their nose guns and their rockets, and the Apaches were using their chain guns," Nolting said.

With the situation appearing to have settled down, Pedro 84 made an attempt to extract the PJs and remaining pilot. An Army Apache teamed up with the Pave Hawk to move to the landing zone.

On scene for the first time, Culbertson was able to get eyes on the crash site and the PJs. He was guiding the pilots down to the site when he began to hear what he thought might be gunfire.

"I heard whistling by my head," he said. "But, I thought to myself, 'That can't be. I've got my helmet on. There's no way I'm hearing the hisses.'"

It wasn't until Culbertson heard the impacts on the aircraft that he realized they were under fire, and he began searching for points of origin.

"Next thing I know, I get thrown on my console," the flight engineer said. "I still didn't know what was going on at that point. But from this vantage point, I could see under my gun, and I could see the muzzle flashes. I remember shaking my head to clear it, and then just a rage of fury came over me."

It wasn't until much later that Culbertson realized a bullet had entered his helmet on the right side, through his visor and exited the other side of the helmet without injuring him.

"I called for the go-around, turned the gun power switch on, and just started unleashing the .50-cal on these two points of origin," Culbertson said.

While Culbertson remembers the event in "slow motion," Gonzalez said the entire engagement was very quick.

"All of this happened within four seconds," he said. "I hear him say 'I'm scanning, I'm scanning. There was the ‘pop-pop-pop’ from the ground, then the ‘guh-guh-guh-guh’ from his gun."

Nolting credits Culbertson's quick and collected response to saving the aircraft. "Without him returning that fire, there was a chance that our right engine or hydraulics could have been shot out," he said.

Running low on fuel, and with plenty of air support on scene to protect the team on the ground, Pedro 84 returned to Morales-Frazier, where the crew looked over the damage to their aircraft. It was at this point they realized not only that Culbertson had been hit, but that Gonzalez had been hit as well.

"I initially counted seven rounds that had impacted the cabin," Gonzalez said. "And then I noticed the one that was under my seat. It had come from under my seat and fragged outward. One piece missed my right knee, and the other actually bounced off my knee and went through my knee pad."

Determining the aircraft was still flyable, Pedro 83 and Pedro 84 prepared to head back to the crash site together. Before departing, the pararescuemen who had come in with the spare aircraft from Bagram loaded onto the Pave Hawks.

"The situation being what it was, we didn't know how long the mission was going to take," Uriarte said. "We thought it was best to switch crews so that they could do some work and we could pick it up later in the night."

At the crash site, Kline and Cenna assessed the situation. With Pedro 84 off scene due to Davis' gunshot wound and Pedro 83 on its way to Morales-Frazier, there was little they could do but wait. They hunkered down near the aircraft and the pilot, waiting for the Pave Hawks to return.

"It was at that time when we started taking fire," Kline said. "I didn't know what was going to happen at that point. We were both preparing ourselves mentally to stay there for a while."

The enemy fire was sporadic as they took cover at the base of the mountain.

"Initially, it was just a couple shots here or there," Kline said. "But then, it really started to get close. Both of us ducked and got behind a rock outcropping. I think I saw the rounds impact before I heard them."

Unable to see the muzzle flashes, Kline requested support from the aircraft above.

"I was basing all of my calls for fire off the impacts," he added. "If rounds hit here, they had to come from there. There was no other way. We were just watching where the dust flew and taking a reverse azimuth."

The team member began looking for escape routes should the conditions deteriorate further. "To me, there was just one," Kline said. "There was this ravine. It was approximately 25 meters away."

The team eventually had to use the egress route as the enemy fire became overwhelming for the two airmen.

"We thought we were in pretty good coverage with the boulders and the helicopter," Cenna said. "But I distinctly remember looking over at [Kline] at multiple times, seeing rounds and dirt flying right next to him. How we were not hit was pretty amazing."

"It felt like 30 rounds were all around us, all within a two- to four-second period. They just hit everywhere," Kline added. "They hit the aircraft, and it went up in flames. It quickly overtook the aircraft, and I yelled at [Cenna] to get the hell out of there. I had noticed during my initial scan of the aircraft that there was still a rocket pod with rockets in it. That was my concern -- that it was going to be like the Fourth of July."

Kline and Cenna sprinted for the ravine taking cover from the aircraft fire while dodging enemy bullets.

"That's when it started exploding," Kline said. "Even while we hunkered down, they still kept shooting at us. The rounds were ricocheting above our heads. I have molten metal on my kit from where the helicopter had exploded."

Kline kept in contact with the air assets throughout the firefight, providing situation updates and receiving information about the enemy who was closing on their position.

"They provided overwatch the whole time," Kline said. "They were like, 'There are these guys 300 meters to the north of you; we're going to go hot on them.' We could feel the concussion from the rockets."

Kline also recalled seeing an Army quick-reaction force being flown over their position as they waited.

"I could see guys sitting there in their seatbelts with their guns," he said. "And as they were going by, I could see [a rocket-propelled grenade] whiz by. I looked up, and I could see the burst on the western mountainside."

Kline and Cenna said they would go up to 15 minutes without a shot fired on them, but that every time they would begin to signal that they were clear, the firefight would start up again.

"I'd say, 'Hey, it's been clear for 15 ‘pop-pop-pop-pop,’" Kline said. "It was every time I would try to tell someone it was clear, they'd pop off a couple of rounds."

While waiting in the ravine, Kline and Cenna overheard the medical evacuation request for a member of the quick-reaction force.

Together for the first time since Davis was shot, Pedro 83 and Pedro 84 left Morales-Frazier, hoping to extract the PJs and the second pilot. But they received the medical evacuation call before they arrived on scene.

A soldier had been hit and died within minutes of the call, Bryant said. Then as the Pedros approached the area, another soldier was hit, requiring immediate medical evacuation.

"When we got to the scene, there was an incredible amount of helicopter traffic in the valley," Hallada said. "It was more than I've ever seen anywhere in this entire country, going all directions. There were UH-60s, Apaches, Kiowas and French helicopters."

Two Apaches joined the Pedros' Pave Hawks, creating a four-ship rescue formation. But the number of enemy fighters on the ground and the amount of firepower they wielded resulted in several unsuccessful passes over the landing zone.

During the first attempt, Pedro 84 began descending into the ravine as the other three aircraft provided cover.

"As we got down to about 30 feet, [Gonzalez] and I starting seeing muzzle flashes from this one building 200 to 300 feet from us," Nolting said.

The flight lead determined they need to pull around, and as Nolting worked to get the aircraft out of the valley, the flight engineer and the pararescuemen engaged targets in the building.

Just barely passing over some wires that were strung along the valley, Nolting was able to safely get Pedro 84 out the zone. The aircraft formed back up for another pass with Pedro 83, this time attempting to land and extract the soldier.

"As we were about to set down, we were engaged, and all of the aircraft returned fire, including the Apaches," Hallada said. "As we took off, I immediately saw the wires out the windscreen, and I pulled everything the rotor system had to get over them."

On the third attempt, Pedro 84 was just feet from the ground when they started taking fire again, Bryant said. At that point, one of the Apaches performed a buttonhook back toward them and began engaging enemy targets.

"It split the formation, firing rockets and guns," Nolting said. "It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. It was deconflicted, it was safe, and it was awesome."

Based upon the threat, the formation again pulled out of the area to reset. At that point, the Apaches fired their Hellfire missiles, destroying a confirmed position that had been posing the immediate threat to the aircrews and the soldiers on the ground.

On the fourth attempt, Pedro 83 finally was able to land and extract the injured soldier. The Pedros saw this as the ideal time to finally extract the second pilot and their PJs.

"There had been this tremendous weight on us the whole mission since we'd left our PJs in the zone," Nolting said. "This was our golden opportunity to get them out."

Nolting contacted with the PJs as Pedro 84 began to move into position above them, and they agreed on an extraction game plan. Culbertson would lower the hoist, the PJs would first hook the pilot's litter to the line, then they would connect themselves on a second hoist. But just as the aircraft made its decent, the engineer noticed that the hoist had broken.

"I knew that we had to get our PJs out, and this was our opportunity," Culbertson said. "The only other option I had was to go to backup mode. I said a little prayer, pushed down, and it worked."

The problem with operating the hoist in backup mode, he explained, is that the speed is significantly slower. But they lowered the cable, and the pararescuemen connected the pilot.

"That's pretty brave to send up a hero and not yourself when you’ve been there over five hours," Nolting noted.

The lack of speed in the hoist was clearly evident to the PJs below the aircraft, the flight engineer said.

"As I'm putting the hoist down there, I can see Kline down there waving for me to go faster," Culbertson recalled. "I'm like, 'Sorry, brother, I can't go any faster. The hoist is broke.'"

"By this time, I was expecting for us to get shot down," Nolting said. "We'd been there so long, I truly expected we were going down."

For the first time that day, however, the aircraft did not take any fire, and Pedro 84 was able to extract the pilot and PJs and evacuate the area.

Kline and Cenna spent about five and a half hours in the valley, dodging bullets and the explosion of the aircraft. And while he didn't know whether he would make it out of the area alive, Kline said, he knew that he never would have left without the downed pilot.

"We were going to do everything in our power to get him back," he said. "If I had to clip in and hold him, I would have. There was no way he wasn't coming back."

Before leaving to have his injuries treated at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, Davis expressed his pride in his squadron’s actions.

"We did what we do," he said. "We've got a motto for a reason: ‘These things we do that others may live.’"

General Recognizes Pilots for Daring Rescue Mission

By Spc. Nathan Hoskins, USA
Special to American Forces Press Service

July 29, 2007 - The top U.S. general in Iraq presented awards to four Apache pilots for their part in the July 2 rescue of two other pilots downed by enemy fire during a July 27 ceremony in the Victory Base Complex here. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of Multi-National Forces Iraq, honored the four pilots of the 1st Cavalry Division's 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, and eight others who helped rescue the pilots.

Chief Warrant Officer Allan Davison and Chief Warrant Officer Micah Johnson, both AH-64D Apache attack helicopter pilots for Company A, 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, received Distinguished Flying Crosses.

Davison and Johnson landed their attack helicopter in a hostile area and evacuated the two downed OH-58 Kiowa helicopter pilots of the 3rd Infantry Division's 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade.

Apaches only have two seats, so Johnson, the front seat pilot, let one of the Kiowa pilots take his seat in the Apache while he and the other Kiowa pilot strapped themselves to the outside of the aircraft and sat on the wings, said Johnson.

"It looked like they were both in pretty good shape, but one of them kind of looked like he had been through enough, like he was a little shocked, as I would be, too. I told him to get in front," he said.

Once the pilots were strapped in, Davison, the pilot in command, took off and headed to Baghdad International Airport where the pilots were dropped off.

While this was taking place, their Apache wingmen were circling above providing security.

Those two pilots, Chief Warrant Officer Seung Choi and Chief Warrant Officer Troy Moseley, received Air Medals for their efforts.

Although happy at being awarded medals and recognized by the top commander in Iraq, the pilots said their greatest reward was finding the downed pilots alive.

"We've seen a lot of aircraft shoot-downs," Johnson said in an interview after the rescue. "Every one that we've all probably seen, it's resulted in burning aircraft and black smoke and usually catastrophic loss of life. If not loss of life, then there have been serious injuries. Just to see those two alive, it was amazing. It was great."

(Army Spc. Nathan Hoskins is a journalist assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division's 1st Air Cavalry Brigade.)