"Big Windy" In Stars and Stripes

Young son emails that his Company got an entire page article in Stars and Stripes. Of course young son avoided the reporter (I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!) so there are no quotes from him.

Chinooks take on more air assaults

With the Chinook seeing more air assaults in Afghanistan, commanders started to see that it had some advantages over the Black Hawk, namely the ability to drop off a huge amount of fighting power in one swoop.

A Black Hawk, for example, can carry a 12-man infantry squad. A Chinook can carry upwards of 50 people — essentially a fully equipped platoon with supporting assets such as mortars, said Staff Sgt. Paul Zayas, a flight engineer. And unlike the Black Hawk, space — not weight — is what keeps the Chinook from carrying more people. So it has power to spare even when fully loaded.

“Size does matter,” said Staff Sgt. Jesse Wandling, a flight engineer, repeating a favorite saying among Chinook crews.

Looks like they're keeping busy over there. That's a good thing since they aren't exactly in the entertainment capital of the world. And of course they are very very good at their jobs.

It turns out the Chinook is no slouch at moving around the battlefield either, despite its size. Big Windy’s pilots regularly squeeze into landing zones wedged between power lines, canals and other obstacles.

It's great to see them getting some recognition for all their hard work. Excellent job guys!

Oh yeah... and read the whole thing!

One last thing... I forgot to post their stats since their arrival in July 2007:

Fifth Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment out of Katterbach, which is called Task Force Ready because it has attached units, has aircraft flying all over the country on a wide range of missions. Since it arrived last year, the unit has racked up these numbers:

• 3,875 combat missions flown
• 17,793 total hours flown
• 57,857 people moved
• 3,461 medical patients evacuated (including 143 urgent cases)
• 5.6 million pounds of cargo flown
• 1.7 million gallons of fuel pumped

Wow!

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