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1/A/1/120th Inf NCNG, Caldwell and Warhorse.
NCNG at Caldwell. Small world.
We would fly into there quite often. I was B Co 2-1 Aviation Bn, 1st Infantry Div. out of Katterbach, Germany. We flew UH-60 Blackhawks.
In fact my aircraft broke at Caldwell one time. Had a tail rotor GB chip light. We spent all day broke on your helipad because we ran out of duty time, and had to spend the night (day) resting in the acft. lol
We would fly into Warhorse every day as well.
Did you guys do any med evacs?
No that was 45th Med that did evacs.
We were 1st ID's GSAB. We would do whatever support the Division needed. Resupply, Recon, Combat Air Assaults, etc.. Mostly we did what we jokingly called "Combat Air Taxi". We would take off from Speicher at first light, and fly a big round Robin...
Speicher - Victory (Saddams Palaces in Tikrit) - Warhorse - Balad - Baghdad - Balad - Warhorse -Victory - Tikrit - Kirkuk - Tikrit
All the other bases such as Caldwell, Mosul, Najaf, Babylon would be sprinkled in there.
We also did the "Hero Missions" at night, flying the fallen soldiers to Balad to go home.
Been here three years and just stumbled across this thread today. My username's pretty self explanatory. Happiest time of my flying career was 6 1/2 years in the Beech 1900 airliner (ATC code: Be02) with the commuter airline that was the launch customer and owned the prototype of the B model, N6667L, UB1. In many ways (weight, power, and speed) she was an analog to the A20 Havoc and certainly at least as, if not more agile. If she were stressed for a few more G's, she would have made a great little COIN fighter plane. She could do unheard of things for an airliner, such as shedding 5,000 feet of altitude AND 50 knots airspeed while turning 180°, all in under 3 minutes, and all without making the passengers nervous. An attribute ATC often found useful in busy terminal airspace. She had two marvelous speed brakes, each with four blades, and each attached to the business end of a 1200 HP PT6. Judicious manipulation of the power levers and trim could drop you from cruise into a 2500-3000 FPM descent at decreasing airspeed with a level deck, no audible change in propeller sound, and very little feel of deceleration. AND she could land on RWY 33R at Logan (BOS) at anything less than MLW. (Check that on the chart!)
It's been great getting the story behind the story on all you guys.
Cheers,
Wes
Then you may have flown a couple of our guys out after the go round in Baqubah on June 24th and about a week later me and 5 others were trying to get back to Warhorse from Baghdad and some general I ended up talking too got us put on a flight to Balad. Other than that and I think we were gonna end up walking bac!
Sounds like you didn't really like driving that bus!
Damn straight, man! Hated every minute. Just didn't seem right, getting PAID to have that much fun.Sounds like you didn't really like driving that bus!
They aren't retired, they're drafted and on duty.The ones in a zoo, like you know... here
I picked mine from Medival history. I have always had an interest in Harold Hadrada and 1071 is the year the battle of Manzikert crippled the Eastern Roman empire.I was looking at some of your usernames and got curious about where you got them and what do they mean?
I got P38 Pilot because of 2 reasons:
1) Its my favorite WWII Aircraft
2) My great uncle was in the 1181st Engineers and built landing strips for aircraft in the Mariannas and the Phillipines during WWII. One story he told me was how a squadron of P38s landed and asked my Great Uncle who built the landing strip. He built it but said said,
"The 1181st built it."
The P38 Pilot replied, "This is the best landing strip since we were back in the States. Nice work!"