Posted on 11/28/2011 10:12:39 AM PST by yoe
Every day in Afghanistan there are casualties requiring helicopter evacuation. There is a high probability that as you read this, someone is bleeding and in the process of extraction from the battlefield.
US Army MEDEVAC helicopters fly unarmed into combat emblazoned with Red Crosses on white backgrounds. This signals to the enemy that our people are unarmed. The enemy tries to shoot them down.
The Air Force, Marines and British do not burden their helicopters with Red Crosses and they are armed with machine guns. This facilitates faster, safer evacuations. Army helicopters frequently must orbit landing zones because there is too much ground fire. This happened again less than a week ago. A trooper suffered a double amputation during an ambush. The Army Dustoff had to orbit for about 45 minutes due to ground fire.
Pilots and crew from numerous Dustoff units have recounted to me many such events. It is my belief that Dusftoff Soldiers will confirm to journalists that such long and unnecessary delays are common. Meanwhile, Air Force rescue helicopters have large machine guns and will shoot their way in and get out faster.
The US Army burdens its Dustoff helicopters with Red Crosses due to internal political struggles about who controls the helicopters. This leaves patients bleeding on battlefields.
Many people who are up to speed on the facts know that this tragic situation needs to change. Many of those caring people have already contacted representatives across the country.
We have created a private forum for action-minded people to exchange information and ideas. This forum is not a place to debate whether or not helicopters should go into combat unarmed and bearing Red Crosses. This forum is for those who wish to change the situation.
Many people have contacted me offline. Some are concerned that taking a public stand can damage their careers, or the careers of loved ones. Some of these people are in key military positions. If you share such concerns, please create a fictitious email and use a pseudonym.
It is YOUR BLOG!
No accusations of blogpimping from me.
If you did blog pimp, I’d probably subscribe though! :-)
If a medevac with a red cross gets shot at, bulldoze the village where the fire came from. Or bulldoze the nearest village if the fire comes from the bush. Pretty soon, the word gets around. Make the villagers members of THE AFGHAN SECURITY CLUB. Give them all a button and tell them they’re responsible for keeping the Soldiers safe. Hard to plant ieds and shoot at Americans when your family is standing out in the cold.
We had to destroy the village to save it.
Back last April, they had a mission to pick up 2 pilots from downed observation chopper, one dead and one alive under fire. Two teams, they got the live pilot out, but nephews team came under fire and their flight engineer & pavehawk was hit and had to exit area, leaving the PJs on the ground with a bunch of Afghans shooting at them. Nephew said he wondered if that was it for him as the Afghans were shooting off RPGs and all kinds of rounds where they crawling under rocks to hide. They were stuck there for 5-6 hrs until AF returned and knocked the crap outta the villagers and got them out. Spooky I do believe. If ya ever been shot at, you know how it is. Couldn't imagine hundreds of rounds at me over 5-6 hours though.
Mission was written up in AF Times, check it out.
http://www.bagram.afcent.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123254042
Don’t care about the village or the villagers. To save American lives. Fight to win, or get out.
Nephew came up and shot a moose at my place this fall, good kid; strong as an ox; patriotic American. My son spent Thanksgiving with him and got the tour of his unit, pavehawks, and everything; then went ski-ing with some of the other pjs, my son was impressed.
Ya know, usually the PJs are only in country 2-4 months but they are flying constantly. Highly trained, no joke. He is being sent to schools all the time when stateside. Here in Alaska, they have a big mission rescuing people, hard landings, bear maulings, lost wannabe explorers, just everything the state police aren't prepared to execute; they are quite busy here too.
My litle brother is a retired USAF PJ..... 26 years.
Tell that new PJ to stay safe for me.
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