Blackhawk Ride Over the Hindu Kush

Yesterday morning we loaded on a Blackhawk helicopter (UH-61) at FOB Salerno for a flight to FOB Lightning, where we expect to be based for most of our embed. SGT Victor Gardner from public affairs picked us up at our tent and drove us to the DFAC for a hearty breakfast.

MAJ Pratt, the PAO of 3/101 Rakkasans, graciously met us at flight operations and offered to arrange for us to accompany Soldiers on operations in the future. We hope to take advantage of that offer.

In Afghanistan, as in Iraq, Blackhawks fly in pairs (photo at left shows the second helicopter as we saw it out the window). This is theater SOP. In case of an emergency landing or shoot-down, the second bird may be able to pick up survivors. As we took off we watched a CH-47 Chinook chopper lift a very large sling load under the helicopter and rotor off into the distance. This is just one of the ways that remote outposts are supplied and takes the pressure off road-bound convoys.

To get to our destination – FOB Lightning, from Salerno, the most direct path is over the beginning of the Hindu Kush chain of mountains. These start in many places – like arms of a starfish – and converge at Everest, the roof of the world, in Nepal. We saw some of the arms of these mountains when we were in Manas, and also in Bagram. Today though, we got to fly over them and through a spectacular pass.

Looking down on the road snaking and twisting through the narrow defiles it was easy to think of ambush sites. With a bit of imagination one can see Soviet armor columns winding through them. Drift back a bit further and this part of the ancient Silk Route felt the hooves of horses, camels, and other beasts of burden as precious spices, silks, and other treasures made the incredibly long and dangerous trek from East to West.

It is every bit as dangerous today.

From the start of the flight we looked down upon Afghan villages and compounds – mud-walled, secretive, and even when clustered, isolated from each other. Initially the fields were surprisingly green and we observed orchards, pastures for grazing, and newly emerging crops. The bucolic picture turned grim as green faded rapidly to dun brown and the ridgelines grew steeper, valleys deeper, darker, and more hidden.

At one point, rather farther up into the mountains, we looked down on a tiny cluster of huts with their surrounding wall that appeared to have no road in or out, just a dry wadi bed that accommodated snowmelt, that, judging from meager traces of snow remaining, had already occurred.

Then the Blackhawk clawed its way into the high stuff. It felt from the thin, cold air that we were easily above 12,000 feet, maybe higher. Snow-capped peaks rose on both sides of the bird and the ground below was amazing close. In some places our actual above-ground altitude was less than 1,000 feet.

Given the normal heavy vibration associated with rotary wing aircraft, the Blackhawk is a good, stable, powerful ride. In contrast to the UH1H, Huey, the previous generation of lift helicopter, the performance of the Blackhawk is outstanding. Within thirty minutes we cleared the mountain range and began to descend to FOB Lightening and FOB Thunder.

Not that we had all that far to descend, since the FOBs sit at an average 8,000 feet. Compared to the warmer days at Salerno, it felt like early spring or fall here: crisp, dry air; energetic rather than enervating.