Photo By Rick Emert | Chief Warrant Officer Sebastien Cosyns, an Apache pilot, does a pre-flight inspection...... read more read more
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By Sgt. 1st Class Rick Emert
1st ACB, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs
CAMP TAJI, Iraq – Many Soldiers have seen an AH-64D Apache fly overhead and wished they had that guy's recruiter.
As Army jobs go, helicopter pilot ranks with astronaut on the "cool-job" scale.
But, ask an Apache pilot what the highlight of his days in Iraq are, and it's not the Apache's firepower or even flying that gets them juiced.
"Ultimately, we support the ground guys. If they need our support, that's our top priority," said Chief Warrant Officer Terry Eldridge, an Apache and maintenance test pilot from Company B, 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division.
"That is the most satisfying thing that we do – going out and supporting the ground forces," echoed Chief Warrant Officer Daryl Hosler, Apache pilot and aviation life support equipment officer for Company B, 1-227th, from Placerville, Calif.
While responding to troops in contact with the enemy may be the money mission for the pilots, they perform a wide range of essential missions in the Multi-National Division - Baghdad area, including reconnaissance, VIP flight escorts, convoy escorts and presence missions.
No matter what the mission, their time in the air is not exactly soothing.
"There is a lot of information to process," said Eldridge, who hails from Lexington, Okla. "It's pretty stressful. We have to constantly consider air traffic avoidance and obstacle avoidance."
Additionally, the crews have to monitor four different radio systems, including frequencies from other multinational divisions in the busy skies over Iraq, according to 1st Lt. Thomas Loux, an Apache pilot and platoon leader.
"From where we are at in the air, we can get shot at from anywhere," Hosler said. "That's always in the back of your mind."
"Everybody looks at it differently," said Chief Warrant Officer Sebastien Cosyns, an Apache pilot and instructor pilot from Tucson, Ariz. "The ground guys are seeing action day in and day out. From our perspective – in the air – if we get hit, we may be coming down. You try not to think about that.
If something is going to happen, then it's going to happen. You can't afford to think about it constantly while you are on a mission."
Before the flight however, the risks involved get a lot of thought – and are included in the mission planning.
"We assess the risk before we start any mission," Eldridge said. "You'll know that this mission or that mission has a higher risk before you even begin."
Unlike the ground forces who interact with Iraqis every day, the Apache pilots have only a birds-eye view of what life is like for the people of Baghdad.
"I've spent most of my deployments in Baghdad," Eldridge said. "There's a big difference between now and (Operation Iraqi Freedom I) in the areas that we will fly over without hesitating. Some of those areas we could not fly over in previous deployments. I don't want to say if it's better or worse here now. That's not for me to determine."
"In some areas, I see people waving at us as we fly over; in other areas, they throw rocks," said Loux, a native of Fort Myers, Fla.
While the pilots can't give an assessment of the security situation from their view of Baghdad, they do have opinions on the portrayal of Iraq in the news.
"I stopped watching the news after news reports of a mission I had been involved in were completely different than what happened," Hosler said.
"Everything I do is to support the Soldier next to me," Eldridge said. "On the news, things are very one-sided. The Soldiers over here who are making a difference – with things like purifying the drinking water – don't sell newspapers. Instead, the headlines are about the latest al-Qaida video."
The pilots don't spend a lot of time thinking about the politics of Iraq, focusing instead on their top mission priority.
"I remind myself of why we are here – to support the ground guys," Loux said. "We work for them."
| Date Taken: | 05.21.2007 |
| Date Posted: | 05.21.2007 14:48 |
| Story ID: | 10474 |
| Location: | TAJI, IQ |
| Web Views: | 500 |
| Downloads: | 398 |
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