Chinooks take on more air assaults

[unhappycamper]

A Chinook's weapons wait to be returned to the armory Thursday morning after an air assault mission that originated in Balad, Iraq.


Chinooks take on more air assaults
By James Warden, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, February 29, 2008

BALAD, Iraq — The Chinook’s twin rotors grow louder as the helicopter nears a landing zone near an anonymous Iraqi canal that may or may not have attackers waiting nearby.

This early Thursday morning, infantry troops are crammed in the helicopter with full gear, about a third of them on the floor in order to squeeze as many as possible into the tube-shaped cargo hold.

“10 … 9 … 8 …” a crewmember calls out over the intercom as the helicopter drops its last few feet, hitting the field with a thud barely heard over the rotors.

The back ramp drops, and the foot soldiers plod into the pitch-black landscape, all 40 or 50 of them.

This ability to land so many troops at once is making the Chinook an increasingly popular helicopter for air assaults, according to soldiers with Company B, 5th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment, the unit that flew Thursday’s mission.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52932