rotornut
15th Jan 2004, 18:43
Copters Quickly Becoming A Target of Choice in Iraq
14.01.2004 [20:15]
Fallujah, Iraq - For Spc. Stephen Sadeo, a gunner on a Black Hawk troop transport helicopter, 6 o'clock means danger.
Not the hour, but the angle of approach of a shoulder-launched missile fired from the ground directly behind his aircraft.
"You scan and scan the landscape, but it is hard to see one bad guy pop up maybe a mile away. We travel in twos. He shoots when we are past. It's the trailing chopper that is really risky," said Sadeo, working on Black Hawks at Base Ridgway, the dusty home of Task Force Wolfpack, a helicopter team attached to the 82nd Airborne Division.
For guerrillas in this volatile region west of Baghdad, Army helicopters have become a target of choice. In two weeks, three choppers have been hit, killing 10 people. In one of those incidents yesterday, ground fire crippled an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter. The two crew members escaped from an emergency landing just north of Habaniyah.
Troops said that, for them, a turning point came Nov. 2, when 15 soldiers were killed when a CH-47 Chi- nook transport helicopter was shot down near here.
"Until November, things were pretty relaxed. Then we had to be more careful," said Maj. Thomas Von Eschenbach, executive officer for Task Force Wolfpack.
"Yeah, it got more serious after November," Sadeo said.
"If one of our helicopters goes down, it helps the enemy cause, partly because it makes news. It's always been like that," said Capt. Scott Jackman.
With increasing frequency, guerrillas are targeting U.S. helicopters with shoulder-fired, Soviet-designed missiles known as SAM-7s. Compared with rocket-propelled grenades, another weapon commonly used against helicopters in Iraq, using the heat-seeking SAM-7 requires careful maintenance and more skill.
"SAMs are expensive and harder to get," Von Eschenbach said. "These are things the locals don't have."
Base Ridgway is near Fallujah, arguably one of the most hostile towns for American forces in Iraq. Hardly a day goes by without some sort of attack on Americans either in Fallujah or to its west.
Yesterday insurgents fired rockets on U.S. troops in downtown Fallujah. The Americans shot back, killing at least two people. Blood stained the main commercial road through town.
It is in this hellish atmosphere that Task Force Wolfpack operates. Its low-flying helicopters provide cover for ground troops as they raid towns looking for guerrillas. If snipers take to rooftops or try to sneak up on the troops, the helicopters are ready with machine guns and rockets. From just 150 feet off the ground, they inspect roads for suspicious items that might be bombs. They escort convoys through treacherous territory.
"The satisfaction is to hear from the guys on the ground that things go better when we're in the air. We're kind of proud of that," said Warrant Officer Douglas Dolson, a pilot with Task Force Wolfpack.
The Washington Post, January 14
14.01.2004 [20:15]
Fallujah, Iraq - For Spc. Stephen Sadeo, a gunner on a Black Hawk troop transport helicopter, 6 o'clock means danger.
Not the hour, but the angle of approach of a shoulder-launched missile fired from the ground directly behind his aircraft.
"You scan and scan the landscape, but it is hard to see one bad guy pop up maybe a mile away. We travel in twos. He shoots when we are past. It's the trailing chopper that is really risky," said Sadeo, working on Black Hawks at Base Ridgway, the dusty home of Task Force Wolfpack, a helicopter team attached to the 82nd Airborne Division.
For guerrillas in this volatile region west of Baghdad, Army helicopters have become a target of choice. In two weeks, three choppers have been hit, killing 10 people. In one of those incidents yesterday, ground fire crippled an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter. The two crew members escaped from an emergency landing just north of Habaniyah.
Troops said that, for them, a turning point came Nov. 2, when 15 soldiers were killed when a CH-47 Chi- nook transport helicopter was shot down near here.
"Until November, things were pretty relaxed. Then we had to be more careful," said Maj. Thomas Von Eschenbach, executive officer for Task Force Wolfpack.
"Yeah, it got more serious after November," Sadeo said.
"If one of our helicopters goes down, it helps the enemy cause, partly because it makes news. It's always been like that," said Capt. Scott Jackman.
With increasing frequency, guerrillas are targeting U.S. helicopters with shoulder-fired, Soviet-designed missiles known as SAM-7s. Compared with rocket-propelled grenades, another weapon commonly used against helicopters in Iraq, using the heat-seeking SAM-7 requires careful maintenance and more skill.
"SAMs are expensive and harder to get," Von Eschenbach said. "These are things the locals don't have."
Base Ridgway is near Fallujah, arguably one of the most hostile towns for American forces in Iraq. Hardly a day goes by without some sort of attack on Americans either in Fallujah or to its west.
Yesterday insurgents fired rockets on U.S. troops in downtown Fallujah. The Americans shot back, killing at least two people. Blood stained the main commercial road through town.
It is in this hellish atmosphere that Task Force Wolfpack operates. Its low-flying helicopters provide cover for ground troops as they raid towns looking for guerrillas. If snipers take to rooftops or try to sneak up on the troops, the helicopters are ready with machine guns and rockets. From just 150 feet off the ground, they inspect roads for suspicious items that might be bombs. They escort convoys through treacherous territory.
"The satisfaction is to hear from the guys on the ground that things go better when we're in the air. We're kind of proud of that," said Warrant Officer Douglas Dolson, a pilot with Task Force Wolfpack.
The Washington Post, January 14