ANOTHER DAY
The CH47D Chinook helicopter is a big, ugly, beautiful tandem-rotor aircraft that is undoubtedly the workhorse here in Afghanistan. Almost daily we get more mission requests than we have aircraft and crews available. With the rugged terrain of this place the way it is, a Chinook is sometimes the only way to get where you want to go. We don’t complain because we came here to fly, and that is precisely what we’re doing.
Not too long ago we had a mission to fly supplies out to some of the forward operating bases (FOB), a somewhat routine mission for us. Early in the morning, the crew loaded a bunch of equipment, along with several passengers who needed to get to one of the FOBs for a missoin of their own, and took off. Most people nod right off several minutes into the flight from the rhythmic vibrations caused by the five large transmissions as they turn keeping the aircraft flying smoothly. Crewdogs often joke about the “sleep switch” hidden in the seats that put passengers to sleep just minutes after take-off. This particular mission seemed to be no different.
Joe had been a crewchief for just under six months and though he didn’t come to Afghanistan with a lot of experience, he certainly brought with him a lot of drive. As the Chinook departed the airfield, Joe took his cue from the flight engineer and began his “in-flight” checks of the cabin to make sure all was secure for the mission. He noticed several of the passengers had fallen asleep, “typical” he thought, and went about his checks. Something didn’t seem right to Joe though and after pausing for a moment, called the more experienced flight engineer asking for advice.
One of the passengers was laying across the lap of another sleeping Soldier and was very much asleep himself. So much so that Joe was alarmed that perhaps the guy was not asleep, but something worse. His flight engineer suggested that he attempt to wake him up. So Joe tried several times to wake the guy and really started to get scared when he got no response. Looking closer, the young man’s face seemed ashen and clammy so Joe reported to the flight engineer that something was “seriously wrong here.”
Fortunately, one of the other passengers on board was a doctor and Joe remembered talking with him prior to the flight. He quickly found the doc, woke him up, and yelling over the whining of the transmissions, explained the situation. The doctor unbuckled his seat belt and moved forward in the cabin to check on the young “sleeping” Soldier.
He wasn’t breathing. As the doc went to work on restoring air to the young man’s lungs, the pilots nosed her over increasing the airspeed to 170 knots for the nearest FOB. A radio call was then made ahead requesting an ambulance meet the aircraft on the landing pad while Joe and the doc struggled with the now breathing Soldier who was having a seizure.
An ambulance met the Chinook as it landed, taking the patient immediately from the aircraft to the nearest medical facility which undoubtedly was nothing more than a tent with a large red cross painted atop it. We later learned that the Soldier was OK, and that he had been given 5-liters of fluid for dehydration. Joe and the rest of the crew completed their mission without any further excitement. Just another day in the Stan. Sgt Hook out.
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This post is filed under: Reconstructed & The Stan
