Bruce McQuain of QandO, a 28-year Army veteran, joined us for another edition of Someone You Should Know. This week Bruce told us two remarkable stories which involve Army aviators, in this case, attack pilots. One of the events, the first, involves Apache pilots. The second, the pilot of a Kiowa Warrior. The first incident happened last week, while the second occurred in 2006.
In the first story, Bruce talked about Apache pilots Purtee and Christ,
Upon landing, the co-pilot/gunner helped load the injured Soldier into the front seat of the Apache without any further injury to the Soldier. Despite the heavy small arms and surface-to-air fire in the area, the co-pilot/gunner strapped himself onto the right side of the aircraft and hunkered down on the small wing. The pilot then flew the three of them to Camp Ar Ramadi medical pad, where emergency medical personnel provided treatment.
Check out this B-Roll of the Apache helicopter rescue from Task Force Marne. Scenes include aerial footage of the Apache helicopter in flight with Soldiers strapped to a wing of the craft, the crash site and the landing of the helicopter. It also includes a brief interview with Purtee and Crist.
As for Lori Hill,
Without hesitation, she risked her ship to draw the enemy fire away, simultaneously providing suppressive fire for the troops engaged with the enemy on the ground.
While all of this was going on, a rocket-propelled grenade hit her ship, damaging the helicopter’s instrumentation. However, even with the damage sustained, instead of focusing on her predicament and aborting the mission, she again established communication with the ground forces and continued to provide them with aerial weapon support until the soldiers reached safety.
As she finally was able to turn her attention to the aircraft, which she discovered was rapidly losing hydraulic power, the Kiowa was hit by machine-gun fire, and a round crashed into one of Hill’s ankles. Still, with a badly damaged aircraft and a painful and debilitating injury, she landed safely at Forward Operating Base Normandy, saving her crew and the aircraft.
For her actions she was presented the Distinguished Flying Cross by Vice President Richard Cheney at Fort Campbell, Ky., on Oct. 16, 2006.
Lori’s story is reminiscent of another recent Someone You Should Know, presented by Matt Burden of Blackfive, about Air Force Maj. Kimberly Campbell, aka Killer Chic.
The Someone You Should Know radio collaboration began as an extension of Matt Burden’s series at Blackfive. Thanks to Matt, Bruce is now on board and we are thrilled to have him as part of the program.
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