Black Hawks Scramble to Save U.S. Troops in Iraq

[Nambe]

TAJI, Iraq (Reuters)

.. Working round the clock, crews have tripled their missions since the clashes erupted between U.S. forces and militia loyal to Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad and Najaf.

The leap in activity not only points to a sharp increase in U.S. casualties, but provides an insight into the cost in life and limb to the men doing the fighting.

"It's not like anything in the movies," said Major Christopher Knapp, 40, a pilot and commander of the 45th Medical Company based at Taji, just north of Baghdad.

"There's torn flesh, blood everywhere. There's no way to be able to describe it, it's just horrific," he said on Tuesday at the base housing Black Hawk transports and Apache gunships. ..

[jeff30997]

1. So he thought it was going to be a John Wayne movie?

[JSJ]

2. he didn't say he wasn't enjoying himself n/t

[hadrons]

3. didn't sound like this Major was dillusional in any way ....

"There's torn flesh, blood everywhere. There's no way to be able to describe it, it's just horrific,"

[tridim]

24. Torn flesh, blood everywhere

That's the definition of war. Was he expecting something else? Flowers and sweets perhaps?

[amber dog democrat]

4. It seems to be escalating -

I don't think we ever really had control there. I wonder when it will reach a breaking point. My guess is this thing can go on for years.

[lostnfound]

20. I suspect the escalation is why alJazeera got kicked out this month

The more out of control the war on the ground, the tighter they want to control the media.

[amber dog democrat]

23. Who knows WHAT is happening there now ?

This thing is devolved into a FUBAR situation. I truely think it will be Bushes and the Neocons undoing.

[Mari333]

5. all of this is happening for nothing. Not one soldier should be there

not one civilian had to die. Not one person had to be wounded.
The only terrorists are the ones sitting in the White House.
http://www.bringthemhomenow.com

[skooooo]

6. Why do we have 40 year olds doing this?

What a mess.

[leftchick]

8. I read about a 62 yr old helicopter pilot the other day....

in Iraq... sick isn't it? All for OIL... PROFITS...GREED....
:grr:

[Bo]

11. On GMA, oils moving to Libya

its safer there and now we are friends.

[caraher]

13. yeah, the Christian Science Monitor had an article about that

There's a unit of helicopter pilots who are mostly Vietnam vets in the National Guard who are in Iraq.

[RivetJoint]

12. Becasue he's a commander

of a unit. Most batt/sq commanders are about 40.

[caraher]

14. No, they're guardsmen

From the Monitor:

G.I. granddaddies: Vietnam vets bring jungle-tested grit to new tour in Iraq
By Ann Scott Tyson | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

BALAD, IRAQ – Dodging high-voltage wires and enemy fire over the dense palm groves of central Iraq, John Sharkey, helicopter pilot and chief warrant officer, feels a tinge of nostalgia - for Vietnam.

Perhaps the oldest Army pilot in this war zone, the wry, 61-year-old New Yorker is the dean of a small, unlikely cadre of gray grandfathers crisscrossing Iraq on daily missions. Combat veterans of the eclectic "Catfish" brigade, the Mississippi National Guard's 185th Aviation Group, they nurse aloft some of the Army's longest-flying aircraft with a deft instinct that only comes with experience.
...
"What are a bunch of old like us doing over here anyway?" asks Chief Percy in exasperation, saying he and other reservists and guardsmen cannot draw retirement benefits until they turn 60 - unlike active duty soldiers who earn retirement after 20 years of service.

For that reason, many active duty soldiers retire in their forties, while many guardsmen stay on into their fifties - or even extend until the age of 62, as Sharkey did.

[cthrumatrix]

7. and shrubya points the finger at the Iraq people and say's it all thiers

except the oil business and contracts

[leftchick]

9. This is required reading for all those warmongering freeps and wingers...

Iraq is no stinkin video game...


<snip>
On bad days, the metal deck of the helicopter is slick with blood. There are often surprisingly few screams -- the wounded have already been doped with morphine by soldiers on the ground.

The company has evacuated more than 85 wounded so far in August -- mostly American soldiers, but the figure also includes some Iraqi security personnel and civilians.

Since they began work on Feb. 1, the unit has airlifted more than 2,120 casualties in their UH-60 choppers, featured in the film "Black Hawk Down

[enough]

10. Unusually graphic descriptions for US media.

Meanwhile, Bush goes fishing.

[lostnfound]

17. That's because it's not US media -- it's Reuters. nt

[veteran_for_peace]

15. War is Hell

I feel for my fellow veterans. It is not just the 928 dead but the thousands who have been wounded by this war. And the countless others who will bear the mentals scars of this war. I guess that is why Bush and Cheney don't have a problem sending our sons and daughters to war. Because they don't have to wake up in the middle of the night because of the images that are seared into your conscience.

[lostnfound]

18. Yes - DemocracyNow this morning featured another suicide.

Another young man who had been in battle at Nasiriyah was discharged June 1st and committed suicide June 22. His mom and dad were interviewed. They had taken him to the VA hospital for psychological treatment and he refused to go inside.

May they rest in peace, not only the dead, but those who are living.

And here's a hug for you, Flood999... :hug: :grouphug:
You are here at DU & you are welcome.. May you find the gold (the good stuff) that flows from your wounds.. In the fable of Iron John, it is where a boy is wounded that his special treasure will be found...if he survives and dips his wound into the healing waters of life. Or something like that.

(What a painful path, but a veteran-for-peace can be a powerful force for change -- not 'in spite of' but -- because of his wounds.)

[amber dog democrat]

22. isnt that ironic.

Those with the least direct experience with the horrors of war are so willing to send others into it.
Were it possible I would send bush back in time to serve in the Union Army of the Potomac to the first Bull Run. ... or maybe as a Marine to Iwo Jima.

[veteran_for_peace]

30. Or we could draft his daughters

I say that we draft his daughters to go. That way his family can make their sacrifice on the "altar of freedom".

[amber dog democrat]

31. put them in field hospitals or medevac copters as corpsmen apprentices.

See if they are so smug and insulated after a tour in combat.
Might do em some good.

[veteran_for_peace]

32. That would be to nice and safe

We put them on a hummer and let them patrol outside the green zone.

[amber dog democrat]

33. that'd be like playing Russian roulette.

But fair. Can you imagine what would happen if they were caputred alive ?

[sandraj]

26. Your post reminded me of a column by Jimmy Breslin

from last year. Worth a repost - it's as relevant now as it was last March.

Blood Remains On the Hands
by Jimmy Breslin
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0331-11.htm

"...At Camp David, Bush notices blood on his right hand and he goes to the bathroom to wash it off and he holds his hands under the water and rubs them with a bar of soap and then puts them under the water and he takes them out and holds them out to dry with a towel. He glances at his hands and sees the blood of the dead baby is bright on his fingers. He mutters and washes the hands again..."

[reprobate]

34. Did Jimmy just describe pResident MacBeth?

"Out, out, damned reporters"

[calimary]

28. Welcome to DU. This is SO awful! There'll probably be 1000 dead

by the time of the election. Will ANYBODY give a damn? My heart breaks every day for these families, and these soldiers - especially those who've ALREADY PAID THEIR DUES!!! If they're stuck over there at that age, WHY CAN'T gEORGE AND dICK GO, TOO? I mean, if there are 62-year-olds, WHY AREN'T THEIR USELESS ASSES OVER THERE, TOO? Let them eat from the table they set.

[MisterP]

29. ABC reports 12,000 nonfatal injuries

[jmcgowanjm]

16. 2,120 casualties-at 10/1 WIA/KIA-Do the math

Since Feb 1 for this unit alone.

2,000 U.S. troops killed in Iraq: Russian expert

By Vladimir Radyuhin
Jul 24, 2004

http://www.hindu.com/2004/07/24/stories/2004072402401400.htm

So, I say again – the media coverage has been lowered
or suffered from very little reporting stateside and on the
`tabloid TV news channels' … just as it appears the
new American-installed Iraqi Interim Government rises … it
also appears to be crumbling as a central authority – because
of that in-built illegitimacy. Reporters and analysts still in
the country report that nothing is governed outside the so-
called `Green Zone' in Baghdad and throughout the Iraqi country-side and indeed they now govern at the point of a
gun, tanks and armored columns of U.S. military
vehicles!

http://www.williambowles.info/iraq/full_war.html

[NickB79]

21. That is not losses from one military unit

That is the number of casualties this airlift unit has taken out since Feb. An airlift unit like this can be active across large areas of land, moving from city to city if need be to get to the wounded. At 10-1 wounded-to-killed, thats 212 dead in the past 6 months, actually below what we've seen reported. This hardly reinforces the 2000-US-dead statement from the Russians.

[jmcgowanjm]

35. I'll trust the objectivity of Russian over Pentagon

After detailing events in Iraq since before March 17,
2004
I think the Russian number is conservative.

the Army's 45th Medical Company, one of four airborne
medical evacuation units supporting 130,000 American troops
in Iraq.

So, doing the math, again, 2000 x 4=8000.
Assuming 4 previous medevac units did "just"
2000 x 4 (since 031704) = 8000,
that's 16000 medevaced.

Conservative. 10/1 WIA/KIA = 1600 KIA .

http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040806/ZNYT04/408060351

BTW- (from same article)-another unit flying Black Hawks lost an aircraft, with
nine soldiers killed, when a rocket-propelled grenade
caused the pilot to pull sharply away from his flight path,
striking power lines that brought the helicopter down.

This is the first I've heard of 8 dead from power line crash.

And the 15 wounded, I wonder how those head shrapnel guys
are doin?

[llmart]

19. Should be required reading for everyone who thinks this fiasco.....

was "necessary." Also, I would suggest the idiot-in-chief read it, but, oh, yeah, that's right - he doesn't read. And Cheney is too busy counting his millions in Halliburton profits to care.

F* you to both of you yellow bellied chickenhawks.

[0rion]

25. 45th Medical Company is my old unit. 421st EVAC, based in Ansbach Germany

They are the elite of Air Ambulance evacuations. I was a medic with the company at Ansbach Army Heliport. I know they have a tough job ahead but they will do fine and save many American as well as Iraqi lives.

[Rebel_with_a_cause]

27. The blood in the choppers reminds me of "We were soldiers once and Young"

At Ia Drang choppers came in to rescue guys in the middle of a fire fight. Bodies were stacked like cord wood, and when the doors were finally shut, the blood seeped out at the seams.