Awoke on a beautiful Thanksgiving Day....anticipating the annual Turkey Feast and Family Fuss that seems required. I ran across an article that mentioned a helicopter pilot. It reminded me both of why we can be so thankful of our fellows who serve in Harm's Way. It also reminded me of this thread and why I started it....warfare is changing and helicopter warfare is really changing.
An excerpt of the speech that grabbed me......
Welsh segued to a battle during Operation Desert Storm on Feb. 27, 1991. An F-16 Fighting Falcon had been shot down, and the pilot, then Capt. Bill Andrews, had landed in the path of a retreating Iraqi Republican Guard armored division.
Welsh, then a lieutenant colonel, was flying in his own F-16 over Iraq at the time. A strike controller relayed Andrews' location to other pilots and asked if anyone could conduct a search-and-rescue. A Chinook pilot answered the call.
"I'm thinking, that's the size of a double-decker bus, it's got no guns, and you're going to fly that thing into the middle of a retreating Iraqi armored division to pick up one pilot? First time in my life I ever said 'Hooah.' I was impressed," he said.
After he returned to the United States, Welsh said he went to look for her. After he confirmed her identity, he set out to meet her.
"I wanted to tell her thank you, because she was inspirational at a time when people needed it," he said. "It took me a little while to find her, but I did."
A photo of Rossi's tombstone appeared on the screen behind the general. Two days later, on March 1, Rossi's helicopter had hit an unlit radio tower near Iraq's border with Saudi Arabia while returning from an aeromedical evacuation mission.
"I kept my promise," he said. "I went and met her. And I stood in front of that rock and thanked her for her courage, for her dedication, for the inspiration she gave so many of us that day, for her sacrifice and the sacrifice of her husband and young daughter.
"You'd better be willing to make decisions, because you're going to need to," he continued, returning his focus to the cadets. "You're going to need to make them without all the information you'd like, and you're going to need to make them when people's lives are at stake. And you're not always going to have time to ask somebody else to help you."
USAFE commander to cadets: Get ready
Therese Rossi-Clayton Major US Army(KIA) Desert Storm
