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In another life I was the S-3 Air for a tank battalion. I do not know if Transportation Battalions nowadays have such a billet. Any kind of pre-planned air support would have had to have been requested by the Trans Bn. If LT Matt was the convoy commander and he wanted Apaches he would have had to get the Trans Bn S-3 shop to coordinate that request for him. We don't know if any such request was made. If it was, the request could have been denied for any number of reasons. There is not enough aviation to go around and everybody doesn't get it when they ask for it.

I don't know about the 724th Trans Co., but in my experience most CSS units do not think in terms of pre-planned fires, target reference points, what batteries are in range of what points on the route, etc.

In my humble opinion Army Aviation is poorly equipped to support convoy operations. UAV's preceding the convoy would give early warning of mischief up ahead, but no Trans companies will be getting UAV's any time soon. Propeller-driven, fixed-wing light attack aircraft dedicated to route recon and QRF on every MSR is what we need, but Army Aviation doesn't have any of those and the Air Force doesn't want that mission. We need our Mohawks back.