1) Sorry I left off “MOST”.
2) Never claimed to have combat helo experience in Afghanistan
3) I stopped military flying in 1978, well before the US was operating helos in Afghanistan
4) You reference for “red illum” is a to British article. US folks generally use different terms than “spanner”, “boot”, “split pin” as used by our cousins across the pond. Does this also apply to “red illum”?
5) All my military combat experience was on the ground, in Vietnam. I did have a tiny bit of helo combat experience in Uganda, having been fired on by a ZU-23-2 at very close range. They missed. ;-)
bump