Swash Plate December 2014

Volume 10, Issue 10 CHPA • The Swash Plate www.chpa-us.org

December 2014

From The President Milan Tesanovich

Veterans Affairs CHPA Veterans Committee

“From The President” Milan Tesanovich

“Blackdeath 23 in Action” Robert Miller

“Welcome New Members”

• “Christmas Boxes 2014 Update”

And much, much more!

Presenting!

Happy Holidays

For the holiday season in 2014, the CHPA raised a record amount of funds in donations ($5,670) to provide a record number (189) of boxes of home-style goodies to our troops deployed in Afghanistan. Sixty (60) separate individuals and groups donated to this program. The number of individual donations ranged from 1 box to 10 boxes. We have set a great precedent for the magnitude of this special fundraising event as we look forward to next year’s campaign. To those of you who contributed to this heart-warming effort, I offer my deepest gratitude.

In addition to acknowledging the contributors who enabled this record number of boxes to be sent to our deployed troops, we need to recognize the selfless volunteer efforts of the 11 McDaniel College ROTC cadets in Westminster, MD who assembled, packaged, and assisted in mailing those boxes to members of the following deployed units: Company F, 1/126 Avn Medevac; Company F 3/126th AVN ATS; and HSC, 90th ASB.

I want to remind you all that in September 2015, we will conduct our biennial election of our CHPA Board of Directors. The CHPA has 12 directors; and five (5) of those directors will serve as the CHPA’s officers (President, VP of Administration, VP of Membership, Treasurer, and Secretary). All directors will be elected to serve for the ensuing two-years. Please consider volunteering to serve on the Board for the October 2015 to October 2017 period.

However, before the election, which will take place at our annual meeting and reunion between September 24 and 27, 2015, we will need to appoint an interim Treasurer. Loren McAnally, who has graciously and honorably served nearly three terms as Treasurer, will vacate that position effective January 1, 2015. If you have any education, training, or experience in finance or accounting, please consider serving as our interim (and permanent) Treasurer and let me know of your willingness to do so. There is a brief description of the Treasurer’s responsibilities in the CHPA’s By-laws.

Finally, in the spirit of this holiday season, I want to personally wish each and every one of you a very Merry Holiday, be it Christmas, Hanukah, or Kwanza, and a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

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Please feel free to forward

this issue of “The Swash Plate” to

your colleagues, potential

members and other interested

parties!

Share the “Swash”

The Swash!

One of the things we all know, nobody tells a better story than a combat helicopter crewmember, whether it’s the truth or “enhanced truth.” Our most entertaining and informative stories come from you, our membership. We often receive responses from our members when an article is published that opens a memory or touches a nerve, in a good way.

So where are all the story tellers out there? All you veterans of the skies of OEF and OIF with an idea for an article, or a story to tell it’s as easy as sending it in. Take a moment to lay fingers on keyboard or just put pen to paper and send them in. You can email them to [email protected] or through the US Post Office to: CHPA • PO Box 42 • Divide, CO 80814-0042

Help us help you tell the tales of your experiences and continue to preserve our shared legacy of combat under a rotor disc.

[Call for Articles]

Reunions and Gatherings

Are you planning a reunion or event that may be of interest to our members? Let us help you get the word out and support veterans groups of all sizes and locations. Just send a message with the information to [email protected]. If you have a logo, send that along as well.

Be sure to include accurate contact and registration information and we’ll take care of the rest.

Please consider sponsoring

CHPA’s programs. You may make tax

deductible donations to support the

Goldie Fund, CHPA’s Scholarship

program, the Holiday Boxes for the

Troops, T-shirts for Heroes or the

Association. For further information

please look at Sponsorship at the

website, http://www.chpa-us.org.

Sponsorship

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Blackdeath 23 in Action Robert Miller

This is an excerpt from the book “Blackdeath 23” by Robert Miller. Robert’s website is WWW.BLACKDEATH23.COM You can find “Blackdeath 23” on

Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. The audio book will be done by 31 Dec and published in Jan through Amazon.

27 July 2008 I rolled out of bed this morning and found myself staring at a pile of American flags I had brought to

Iraq to fly for various people. I’m not sure why, but I felt an urge to fly them all today. I piled them all together, I believe there were seven, and took them with me to the CP. After dropping the flags off at the CP with my flight gear, I hoofed to the chow tent.

At breakfast, I linked up with Kevin, Matt, and CPT Whitney for our mission briefing. We had a fairly routine mission tasking for the day, nothing too spectacular. Both our aircraft were configured with rockets on one side and a single hellfire missile on the other. Kevin and I were in the lead ship. He was flying right seat, I was in the left. Matt was flying right seat in the trail bird and had CPT Whitney was in the left.

We conducted a route recon from FOB Sykes to FOB Q-West and had nothing to report. Just before reaching FOB Q-West, we were tasked with a change of mission. Bandit Troop with 1/3 ACR out of FOB Q-West had intel on the location of an individual they wanted to take down and requested air support during the mission. Our TOC sent us the grid location, frequency, and time on target (TOT) for the mission. We had approximately 45 minutes before game time so we hit the FARP in Q-West and topped off with fuel.

ME - “Bandit this is Blackdeath 23.” BANDIT - “Blackdeath this is Bandit, go ahead.” ME - “Blackdeath 23, we’re your scout weapons team today, you’ve got two Kiowas carrying eight

rockets, two hellfire missiles, and have 90 minutes of station time over.” BANDIT - “Roger that Blackdeath 23, request that you hold to the northwest of the objective until ten

mikes prior to go time.” ME - “Wilco.” Approximately twenty minutes prior to go time, we departed the FARP and moved 15 kilometers

northwest of the objective. Bandit was enroute to the objective area with a platoon sized element and confirming the intel with the source. The objective area was a small village northeast of FOB Q-West. We had ten minutes to burn so I tried to pinpoint the objective house using the sight. It’s difficult to do from that distance but I was able to become familiar with the area.

At the ten minute mark, we moved into the small village and continued our recon from about three to four kilometers away. Everything appeared normal. As always, the locals were curious as to why we were in the area. Truth be known, they know exactly why we’re here. A few minutes passed and Bandit rolled in from the south. No one tried leaving the area but they did disappear into their houses. Bandit elements setup a perimeter just west of the objective and dismounted from their vehicles. A team of four stacked in formation and moved to the north side of the objective house. We positioned ourselves on the north side of the house for the initial phase of the raid in order to provide immediate air support if needed.

As they approached the door, we dropped to just under 100 feet off the ground and turned toward the objective house. I had my M-4 out the left door and ready. As Bandit entered the house, we flew just overhead circling to the south side of the house. We came around the west side of the house and four insurgents ran out the south door. It was a four on four all out gun fight! Bandit was only 15-20 feet from the

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insurgent group and I couldn’t immediately get a clear shot with the M-4. Within a second or two, two of the insurgents shifted their fire to our aircraft. We were extremely close to them by this point. I estimate no more than 100 feet separated us from the insurgents. I remember thinking, there’s no way they can miss us at this range and the pucker factor pegged. The gun fire was so close to us that it was activating my microphone on my helmet. I yelled at Kevin, “Taking fire, break right!” Kevin turned the aircraft hard right. Between the ground fire from Bandit and us moving in from the air, it allowed Bandit to break contact and move back into the house. As fast as we turned away, the insurgents ceased firing and I yelled, “Break left, let’s get back in there!” Kevin banked hard left and we moved right back to the objective.

One of the insurgents had been hit and was slowly crawly away. The other three moved to a small structure of about ten foot square that had no roof. I heard Bandit come over the radio, “Man down, we need immediate MEDEVAC!” Bandit sent up a MEDEVAC request to Mosul and our trail aircraft coordinated the pickup LZ. Kevin and I circled around the remaining three insurgents so we could engage them with the M-4. In the process of doing so, Bandit threw a grenade over the wall and into the room they were in. It exploded before they were able to exit. Boom! They ran out the east door and into a nearby house. I could tell by the way they moved at least one of them was injured. We had them pinned down inside the house. The house was about 40 feet long and had no windows so it was difficult to tell where they were inside. We continued receiving small arms fire from the insurgents from the doorway.

I called Bandit, “Bandit, we have the three squirters pinned down inside the house on the east side of the objective.” “Pull your guys out of the area and we’ll engage with hellfire.”

Bandit promptly replied, “Roger Blackdeath, we’ll advise when all elements are clear.” While Bandit worked to move their wounded soldier to the LZ for pickup, we put a plan together that

would end this thing. The MEDEVAC Blackhawk landed not long after Bandit reached the LZ on the west side of the village. Bandit quickly loaded their soldier and the Blackhawk departed for the cache in Mosul. Bandit’s wounded team member took a round through the leg during the raid.

The building the insurgents were inside of was long enough that it would take both of our hellfire missiles to guarantee the kill. I called trail and suggested a welded wing formation, simultaneous engagements of the building and trail agreed. There was one doorway on the south side of the building and several obstructions on the north side so we setup to engage from the south to the north. We flew side by side toward the house and I counted down to the shot.

Trail called as we were inbound toward the target, “I do not have positive ID.” I replied, “It’s the building north of the open courtyard with the large tree.” He repeated, “Negative PID.” I said, “Roger, I have PID and we’re taking the shot, follow-up with rockets.” Matt replied, “Roger on the rockets.” With only one missile, I’ll have to guess at their location inside the building. I positioned the reticle

halfway between the door opening and the end of the house and announced, “Missile in constraints.” Kevin replied with “firing,” pulled the trigger and the missile left the rail, whoosh! Several seconds later the missile impacted, creating a large plume of smoke, dust, and debris. Matt followed and squeezed off two rockets, both impacting near the target.

Both of our aircraft were at minimum fuel after the engagement. The FARP turn in Q-West would take approximately twenty five minutes. I called Bandit to let him know we would be departing for a quick splash of gas while they formulated a plan to proceed. While we were gone, the 1/3 ACR Squadron Commander, Tiger 6, ordered additional assets be sent to the objective to aid in the fight. A platoon of Iraqi soldiers arrived to

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assist along with Tiger 6 himself. As quick as possible, we fueled and returned to the village. Upon our return, the ground units were

preparing for a house to house search of the entire village. We slowed to our maximum endurance airspeed to afford the most station time possible.

The Iraqi troops took the lead on the house to house search and all went well for about thirty minutes. As they reached the house we had just put a missile into, they once again came under enemy fire. Fortunately, there was only one insurgent left fighting. He fired is way out of the rubble and ran south to the next courtyard. I called to the ground unit, “Bandit, we have one insurgent on foot, running south.” He was heavily armed with several bandoleers of ammo and grenades. As he approached the adjacent courtyard, he jumped the wall and ran into a house about 75 meters south of the one we had just engaged. I relayed to Bandit the insurgent’s new location.

I had several thoughts going through my head. Is this guy the last of them? Are there more insurgents that we’re unaware of? It’s easy to get fixated on one objective and then get attacked from another angle. He fired at us several times from the doorway of the house but missed each time. The only access to the house he was inside of was on the north side. There were no other doors or windows so we avoided the area directly north of the house to limit our exposure to the doorway.

Less than two minutes after the insurgent entered the house, two Iraqi soldiers decided to be heroes and jumped the courtyard wall, landing themselves inside the lion’s den. They were completely exposed to be engaged. The insurgent tossed a grenade at them. One soldier jumped the east wall before it detonated, the other wasn’t as fortunate. Shortly after killing the Iraqi soldier, the insurgent made a run to the adjacent house to the west and ran inside. Both of these houses shared a courtyard.

Tiger 6 wanted to isolate this guy and lock him down so he moved an MRAP to the south of the insurgent’s location, in the alley right behind the house he was in. The alley was a common sewage run off area from each of the surrounding houses so the ground was soft and the MRAP sank to its axles, immobilizing it 15 feet from the house the insurgent was in.

With no warning, two Iraqi soldiers ran into the courtyard, scaled the wall, and jumped inside. The insurgent gunned both of them down within seconds, shooting them several times. A second group ran over the wall, again he gunned them down and they fell like rag dolls. Kevin and I both yelled in the cockpit, “Stop running in there!” as if it would help. The radio was congested with traffic but I managed to get a call to Bandit and suggested that he tell the Iraqi commander to cease further attempts and pull all of their men back so we could engage the building.

Tiger 6 came on the net and requested that we engage the house after his guys are buttoned up inside the armored MRAP. “Negative sir, it’s danger close,” I replied. I could tell he was irritated. A missile perfectly placed would not harm the ground team but I wasn’t willing to take the chance. Equipment and missiles malfunction. It’s not worth taking the chance. My target was 15 feet from his men. He agreed to move his guys and sent another MRAP to their location to evacuate the immobilized unit. When the second armored MRAP moved in to extract the men, it too sunk its left rear wheel into the soft sewage burying it to the axle. The second MRAP was lying up against the first, and both unable to move. Eventually, the soldiers ran out the back of the vehicles and moved a safe distance to the west.

Once everyone was evacuated, the LTC called, “Blackdeath 23 you are cleared to engage.” “Roger, we’ll engage from north to south,” I replied. As we moved to the north of the village to setup for the shot, I called Matt to coordinate. Matt was carrying the last hellfire missile. Captain Whitney had trouble setting up the shot and did not have positive ID of the building. We needed to make this shot quick and precise so we chose to

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Welcome New Members

do a remote shot. Matt would shoot the missile from his aircraft and I would guide it to the target from our bird. I quickly programmed his missile code into our aircraft.

At 2.5 kilometers away, I marked the target with the laser. Matt called, “In constraints…..firing” and pressed the fire button. At 1.8 kilometers from the target, the missile left the rail. The radio was silent as the missile screamed to the target. About fifteen seconds later, BOOM! We watched as the smoke and dust slowly cleared. The house was completely leveled. Bandit keyed up the mic, “F#@* yeah!”

Our fuel was low and we were out of missiles. I called Tiger 6 and asked if he’d rather us make a quick fuel turn in Q-West and get back on station in 20-25 minutes or fly to Mosul where we can get fuel and ammo. The trip to Mosul would take us 45 minutes. He preferred a quick turn in the FARP for fuel in Q-West so we turned southwest and pulled max power.

As we arrived in Q-West, the tower controller warned that a dust storm was quickly approaching on the south end of the airfield. We could see it only a couple miles south of us and it was moving fast. I signaled for the fuel crew to work fast, pointing at the storm. They quickly topped us off but it wasn’t fast enough. The storm was already coming around us. As soon as the ground team unhooked us, we pulled pitch and flew directly north to get in front of the storm. It only took a minute or two to fly out of it. Another thirty seconds on the ground and we wouldn’t have been able to see well enough to take off. The path of the storm was moving right at our mission area and would soon engulf the region.

We called the ground commander for an updated status after clearing the leading edge of the storm and filled him in on the inbound weather. He advised that they had the situation under control and thanked us for our help. After signing off, we turned northwest and made a B-line for FOB Sykes. The flight home took 40 minutes which gave me time to bring my adrenaline back to normal levels. Now I know why I had a sixth sense to take all the flags this morning.

After re-arming the aircraft, we repositioned to the parking pads. As we hovered in to land, our crew chief, Dennett, met us at the pad. I thought of the irony of being in aircraft 007 (better known as balls 7) for such a great mission. We flew 7.5 hours in her and she had performed beautifully. Dennett was happy to hear of her great performance and helped as we gave her a detailed post flight, anticipating finding a few bullet holes. Miraculously, we only found a small nick in the tail rotor. I’m not sure how we didn’t get hit. God is good. I pulled the stack of American flags from the aft compartment and proceeded to unwrap one. We were all tired and soaked in sweat but we took time to pose for a quick photo while holding the flag in front of our bird. What a day it’s been.

CHPA extends a hearty “Welcome Aboard” to these new members, who have joined so far in December, 2014.

David K. Bowman Neil A. Covington James M. Danley Robert Mills Scott M. Sweat

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How Are We Doing? Jay Brown

CHPA continues to receive quite an assortment of patches from our members. These patches are displayed at our booth at HAI, Quad A, and VHPA. Several of you have donated patches, but we’re always looking for more. They are very eye catching and help us garner attention. So please dig through your old patches and if you have some you’d like to share, send them to us at:

CHPA • PO Box 42 • Divide, CO 80814-0042

GOT PATCHES?

Every month we try to bring you articles and notices that interest all of our members. Of course that entails gathering news items and articles from various sources and varying topics, from the humorous to serious news of world events. We hope we’re meeting your needs and providing entertainment and we’d love to hear from you on whether we’re meeting those goals. If you have a comment or suggestion on what we’ve done well or where we could improve drop us an email at [email protected] or give us a call at 800-832-5144 and let us know. Of particular interest right now are stories on the retiring OH-58D Kiowa Warrior. If you’ve flown this aircraft in combat, or if you’ve been supported by this aircraft in combat we want to hear from you.

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So, Where Are The Stories Jay Brown

Thanks to the People Who Make It Happen Jay Brown

As has often been said, and demonstrated so often in The Swash Plate, some of the best stories are told by military pilots, especially helicopter pilots, usually over a beer at a bar. As we’ve also said, this is your newsletter, not only to read and share, but to contribute to. We’ve shared tales of bravery and daring-do from flight school to combat zones around the world to boring stateside missions that were suddenly not so boring anymore. There was the CH-47 that spiraled down through a dark and cloudy night following a flare to deliver much needed supplies. There was the story about trying to take off for an instrument qualification check ride with seat belt and shoulder harness unfastened. There was the story of a near miss over Fort Campbell between two OH-58As that tried to share the same airspace at high airspeed below the tree line. So, where is your story? It doesn’t have to be a literary work of art, nor does the spelling, syntax and formatting have to be perfect. I’ll take care of all that. It just has to be delivered to me at HQ and I’ll take care of everything else. And, with respect to “war stories” or TINS, it doesn’t even have to be true!! Submit your stories to CHPA either by email to [email protected] or send them to HQ at CHPA, PO Box 42, Divide, CO 80814-0042.

By now everyone’s heard that the 2014 Christmas Boxes for the Troops Project was a huge success. In addition to thanking those of you who contributed to the cause we need to also thank those that gathered the supplies, stuffed the boxes and got everything to the Post Office on time. Without all of these people working together this project would never come together.

Our man in the lead was, once again, Pat Glass. Pat has been the honcho for the past few years and does an excellent job. The cadets from McDaniel College who assisted with the packing and shipping of the Christmas boxes are Stuart, Richard MS 4, Collins, John MS 3, Kimmell, Russell MS 3, Guttmann, Jesse MS 2, Nims, Michael MS 4 (special mention that he volunteered to help take boxes to Post Office and unload them), Ashbaugh, Nathan MS 3, Molliza, Nick MS 3, Meagher, Matt MS 1, Ash, Victoria MS 1, Thornberry, David MS 2 and Garly, Thomas MS 2. Thank you all for making this a great Christmas season

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Call on Us! Contact Quick Reference Chairman of the Board – Robert Frost Buzz Covington [email protected] [email protected] President – Mick Tesanovich Mark Hilton Call us! [email protected] [email protected] 800•832•5144 VP Administration – Rich Miller Alex Horony Fax us! [email protected] [email protected] 719•687•4167 VP Membership – Al Major Randy Jones Write us! [email protected] [email protected] CHPA

PO Box 42 Secretary – Rhea Rippey Dan McClinton Divide, CO 80814-0042 [email protected] [email protected] Treasurer – Loren McAnally Randy Zahn Remember! [email protected] [email protected] Feel free to contact

us any time. Executive Director – Jay Brown [email protected]