Choppers In the Coils

摘要

It was 4:30 am, March 2, D-Day of Operation Anaconda when the pilots of the 159th Aviation Brigade and the 7th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) started their pre-flight checks and began to turn the rotors of their CH-47 Chinook troop-transport helicopters. Behind them, infantry from the 101st Airborne and the 10th Mountain Divisions waited for the word to load. They carried food, water, cold-weather gear, and night-vision and communications equipment in addition to a variety of weapons and ammunition. Some soldiers carried a hundred pounds or more. A rear gunner on a Chinook, having checked his pintle-mounted M-240 machine gun, stood outside talking to his pilot on the intercom as he watched the rotors begin to spin up. At last, he walked back to the rear door of his helicopter and motioned the troops forward. Captain Frank Baldazar of the 101st led his men onto the helicopters. Over the noise of the aircraft, a platoon sergeant yelled, "Let's go, let's go, get in there. Get that shit off your back ―sit on it, make some room, let's go!" The men filed onto the birds. In total, eight Chinooks, in two serials of four, prepared to leave for the Shah-e-Kot Valley. A halo of light began to form on the outer edge of the turning rotors as the speed of the blades increased. Finally, the CH-47s lifted off and into the night sky, visible momentarily by the static on the blades but disappearing as they reached flight speed.