They say "time heals all wounds". I don't know about that, after 4 years now its still hard to believe and deal with. To be remembered. Now thats important, and my heartfelt thanks go to each of you.
AKA kokimoki the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed Join the NRA and protect YOUR right to keep and bear arms To protest against all hunting of game is a sign of softness of head, not soundness of heart. Theodore Roosevelt [L]http://www.ourfallensoldier.com/ThompsonMichaelE_MemorialPage.html[L]
<< <i>They say "time heals all wounds". I don't know about that, after 4 years now its still hard to believe and deal with. To be remembered. Now thats important, and my heartfelt thanks go to each of you. >>
I don't think time can heal a parents grief but it does allow you to develope more coping mechanisms to deal with such a tragedy. Heroes never die...they live on forever in our heats and memories....stay strong my friend.
Again, I am humbled by the thoughts, prayers and comments. Here is the story, written by a member of the flight crew of one of the other helo's. A dear friend, who will also never forget. Thanks to all of you from the bottom of my and my Families hearts.
The Longest Flight It was a hot day in September in the country of Kuwait, a day that no one will soon forget. The mission was simple; fly four CH-47D Chinooks from Udari, Kuwait to Balad, Iraq. The planning was simple: point A to point B with a fuel stop in the middle. What happened that night would become anything but simple. September 17, 2008 was the day. We were the last of twelve Chinooks scheduled to make the trip. The days had dragged by since the last flight had left. Days spent packing up our overnight bags and preparing the aircraft to fly only to find out once again we did not have the weather to go. Six solid days of this drill had already passed since the last flight left. We were all anxious to get going and get settled in Balad. We were at the beginning of our tour and knew we had a long way to go. The sooner we got there and started doing the mission the better. Our day started like every day the week before; we get up, pack, and prepare the aircraft to fly. This day, though, we all had a good feeling about it. The weather looked good outside and our hopes were up that we would go. “Today‘s the day”, was heard all throughout our tent. We were all smiles and jokes. “Today’s the day.” While sitting on my cot and watching a movie on my laptop, I noticed 1LT Vallejo walk in hurriedly and begin talking, so I dropped my headphones down and heard the words I was waiting to hear, “We got weather, were going!” Quickly everyone grabbed their stuff and headed out to the flight line. The birds were untied, windows cleaned, baggage secured, weapons mounted, all with practiced speed. We briefed at the lead aircraft and waited for the briefed takeoff time. Shortly before takeoff time, all the aircraft were cranked and we began repositioning for takeoff. We lined up in chalk order. Chalk one was Red River 26, chalk two was Red River 45, chalk three was Red River 44, and chalk four was Red River 41. I was in chalk two. The engines were roaring and the blades were thumping, we were ready to go. “Red River 26 and flight this is Udari tower.” “Udari tower Red River 26 go.” “Red River 26 be advised we have updated weather, visibility has just dropped to 2 and ¾ miles at the airfield.” “Roger that tower.” My heart sank as I listened to the words. The next communication gave me hope again. “Flight this is 26, tower has advised that visibility has dropped to 2 ¾ here at the field, all other weather along the route is still good, in chalk order advise if you are good to proceed.” We talked it over in the aircraft as a crew and agreed that we felt good about going. “45 is good to go.” “44 is good to go.” “41 is good to go.” “And flight this is 26, we are good to go.” “Tower this is Red River 26 and flight we are ready for departure at this time.” Man it felt good to be finally leaving. One by one we took off on our way to Balad. The time was about 23:21 local. Shortly after takeoff, I was scanning my sector and noticed that it was a dark night and there was very little in the way of cultural features. As we progressed along our route, the horizon was becoming more and more difficult to make out. The ground was beginning to blend with the sky in a greenish haze due to the NVGs. At one point, I experienced a brief moment of spatial disorientation. It was only for a fraction of a second and I was able to regain focus, so I didn’t think much of it at the time. This moment of disorientation was a telling sign of what was to come. We had been flying for around twenty minutes at this point. My primary concern was the aircraft’s orientation as it related to the formation. I was watching chalk one and ensuring that we had plenty of safe distance, and scanning for other traffic out the right side. On the ramp SGT Vasquez had the best view of the rest of the formation so he was keeping an eye on chalks three and four. The left side was covered by the left gunner CPL Skipworth. While scanning my sector, I began to notice that chalk three was fading back from our aircraft approximately a 1/8th of a mile. This was further than we had briefed but given the horizon and the dark night I wasn’t overly concerned, in fact as long as I could see them I felt more distance was better than too close. The atmosphere in the aircraft was becoming very tense. We were losing the horizon and everyone was concentrating heavily on their duties. In the distance, we saw a series of lights. At first, we believed these to be a village. CPL Skipworth announced, “That’s no village, it’s a convoy. That’s MSR Tampa down there.” I was glad for the lights because this was the first real horizon we had had for some time. As we approached the convoy, I checked on chalk three. They had faded further from us and were now almost a quarter of a mile back. They were still in sight and still did not cause me any concern. I was looking at chalk one and then down as we crossed the convoy. After crossing them we began making a slight left turn. Suddenly the right side of the aircraft lit up in my goggles nearly causing them to shut down. I thought one of our flares had gone off only it was much brighter. At that same time I saw the flash, SGT Vasquez came over the ICS and said, “Chalk three is down, chalk three is down; they crashed!” My heart sank to the pit of my stomach and I desperately tried to get a fix on their position. The radios came alive with all the radio calls from chalk four saying the same thing, and chalk one trying to confirm what we all feared. Suddenly, my pilot announced, “I am going spatial, I’m spatial.” I felt the aircraft lurch into a turn and go nose down. I immediately came off of my gun and into the companion way. I flipped up my goggles and searched the instruments. Finding the Attitude indicator, I announced, “You are in a nose down right turn, pull up and turn left.” I felt the nose come up but I felt us go further into a left turn. “Correction, you are in a left turn, come right, come right!” The pilot responded at once and the aircraft leveled off. I had misdiagnosed the turn initially. Now we had another problem, where were the other aircraft? CW2 McGill, the pilot on the controls asked, “Where is chalk one?” “I have chalk one at 10 O’clock ½ mile, they are turning left towards the crash,” relayed CPL Skipworth. “I don’t have them, where are they, and chalk four?” “I have chalk one in sight they are no factor and are at our 9,” said Skipworth. “Chalk four is at our 6 O’clock low about a mile back,” announced SGT Vasquez. While the other guys in the back were looking for the other aircraft, I was locked on three gauges, Attitude Indicator, Airspeed, and Altimeter. When we initially leveled off our altitude was 300 feet. We had lost 200 feet in about 3 seconds. The aircraft was now traveling at 70 knots down from 110 knots. Mr. McGill was still disoriented, and we were certainly all in some state of shock. Chalk three had just crashed. All we could see was the huge trail of flames left from the impact. Chalk one climbed up to initiate Fallen Angel procedures via the radio. Chalk four announced that they were going to land and see if they could help chalk three. Meanwhile we were still heading away from the crash site. The aircraft was very unstable during this time. We would go into a slight left turn, I would call the turn and corrections until we were level, then we would go nose down, nose up, right turn, left turn, loose airspeed, loose altitude, it was a constant struggle to help keep the aircraft oriented. Mr. McGill made all the corrections I called for. Finally he decided that we needed to turn around and try to stay in the vicinity of the other aircraft. We had traveled for several minutes putting us miles away from the other aircraft. SGT Vasquez announced where the other aircraft were and CPL Skipworth cleared us in the left turn. After we began heading back toward the other aircraft, Mr. McGill made the decision to climb up to 1,000 feet. I called his ascent and had him level the aircraft out of the turn. “You’re in a slight left turn, come right, wings are level, 600 ft, 80 knots. You are slightly nose down, pull up, wings level, 700 ft, 90 knots. You’re in a slight right turn, turn left, wings level.” I was constantly calling corrections, constantly scanning one instrument after the other. My whole world at this time was three instruments. They were the only hope offered to me, our only chance of surviving this. Time seemed to creep by, minutes seemed like days. Finally we reached 1000 feet, 1LT Stanski, applied Barometric Altitude Hold. I could breathe a little easier. The aircraft would hold at 1000, no more descents. I still checked the altitude to ensure we were holding at 1000. I didn’t want this to be the time it failed us and not notice until it was too late. Mr. McGill seemed to calm a little as well, the aircraft was somewhat stable now. I still announced the altitude, attitude and airspeed about every minute or so. These were really the only sounds for a while. I remember thinking over and over, “this isn’t happening, this isn’t happening.” Then the crash site would cross in front of us and I would see the flames. It was almost like a medieval runway set up with fire pits. It seemed to spread on forever. It was so bright that it would almost shut down my goggles when I looked through them. Chalk four had landed near the crash. I knew there was nothing we could do for them. Nothing anyone could do. I could see them down below just sitting on the ground, blades turning, and their glowing tail cones. I wished to be with them, to see if I could help my friends and to not be flying anymore. I wanted to be done with this flight. The radios had all kinds of traffic jumping in and out of my ears all of a sudden. Lt. Stanski had got us talking again. We had lost communications with the other aircraft so he worked frantically to reestablish communication. I heard that there were other aircraft enroute to the scene. Some of which were medevac. “…there are no survivors, please ensure you have recovery assets,” chalk one relayed to the medevac bird. It hit me like someone had just punched me square in the stomach. They were all dead. Part of me had a little hope that maybe chalk four had found someone alive, that they were treating them on their aircraft. That hope was smashed into a thousand pieces after one radio call. We orbited for what seemed an eternity. The carnage displayed for me on every left turn. A huge burning fire, and one lone Chinook sitting off to the side. One of the Chinooks vital and alive, the other ….just gone. “You’re in a slight left turn, come right, wings level.” After more than an hour on station at the crash site, chalk one called for fuel statuses of the flight. It was reported back that we were all getting dangerously close to bingo fuel. Another radio call was made to confirm the enroute aircraft and security forces. They were definitely on their way and a ground security team was a few minutes out. Lead made the call; we were to link up in flight and continue on to our planned fuel stop at Talil, Iraq. We couldn’t stay any longer or we would not make it to our fuel. We had to either go or land and not have the fuel to take back off. One more left turn, the fire and still the helicopter. That was the last time I would see them in their death. A part of my heart, and my unit’s heart was left there in the desert as we flew away. My friends were gone. CPT Robert Vallejo II, CW3 Brady Rudolf, SGT Daniel “Grumpy” Eshbaugh, SSG Luke Mason, CPL Michael “Tommy Gun” Thompson, and their passengers CW2 Corry Edwards, and SGM Julio Ordonez. May they rest in peace. I tell this story to you who are reading with a heavy heart. My friends are gone, their families affected forever. So why do I tell this story? I tell it in the hopes that it will help prevent it from ever happening again. No one knows exactly what happened in that aircraft that night. The dead tell no tales. I do think there are certainly lessons to be learned from this tragedy. What would you have done in our places? What could have been done to prevent this? How can we keep it from happening again? I certainly don’t have all the answers. The aircrews that were involved in this accident have talked. We have banged our heads against the walls to answer these questions. We have tried to make some sense of it all. It just doesn’t make much sense. Hind sight is 20/20 so they say. So I will leave you with some of the thoughts we have had.
Spatial Disorientation is not just a subject we cover in our academic training, RL Progression and APARTs. It is a very real and potentially deadly phenomenon. Talk about it regularly. If you have experienced it share that with your soldiers and aircrews. Have a plan on how you are going to deal with it if it happens to you or in your aircraft. Enlisted crew members, know the instruments of your helicopter and be available to help your pilots at any given moment. It certainly saved my life that night. The three big ones are Attitude indicator, Altimeters, and Airspeed. Get with your pilots and have them teach you how to read these instruments and where they are located at. Know them like the back of your hand. Weather minimums are there for a reason. Only fly in weather you are briefed to fly in. Speaking of weather, insure that you are prepared for bad weather and have contingencies well planned and briefed. Know your inadvertent IMC break up plans and practice them. Be able to transition to instruments immediately if needed. Effectively use Crew Coordination. Accomplish Pre-mission Planning; Effectively Manage Unexpected Events, Mutually Cross Monitor Crewmembers Actions, and on and on. The point is talk about everything within your aircraft and your flight. Crew Coordination is not just limited to your aircraft, but also involves the entire flight. If we had made a radio call to chalk three in relation to them falling back from our formation would it have made a difference? Maybe. Talk about everything and use good Crew Coordination. Route Planning is also critical. In places of little to no contrast (i.e. Kuwait, western Iraq) where you may encounter zero horizon try to plan routes that utilize cultural features to break up the terrain, within the limits of METT-C. Lights are a Godsend. You do not have to fly directly over them but try to use them for references to help keep spatially oriented.
On the night of September 17th, 2008, I embarked on the longest flight of my military career. It was a simple point A to point B flight. It was a night I will never forget. It took me and my crew using all of our skills to survive that night. Bringing to bear courage that we didn’t know we had and staying focused in spite of all that happened. We survived; it is my sincere hope that you who are reading this will survive your “longest flight”. This is dedicated to the Crew Members of Red River 44, their families, my fellow soldiers of B Co. 2-149 GSAB, and to all of you who read this. God Bless. SSG Joseph Keyes
AKA kokimoki the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed Join the NRA and protect YOUR right to keep and bear arms To protest against all hunting of game is a sign of softness of head, not soundness of heart. Theodore Roosevelt [L]http://www.ourfallensoldier.com/ThompsonMichaelE_MemorialPage.html[L]
I spent my year in Iraq escorting convoys up and down route Tampa. It is stories like this that help me remember the friends that were lost. Thank you for your family's sacrifice.
TomB thank you for keeping this soldiers story alive.
Nick Capuano
Veteran OIF III
Morgan Everyman Set Member, Society of Silver Dollar Collectors. Looking for PCGS AU58+ 1901-P, 1896-O, & 1894-O
Thanks so much for sharing that heart wrenching account by Joseph Keyes, who was a casualty of war just like your heroic son was. It couldn't have been easy for you to revisit this but it's a story that needs to be told.
Missed this post the first couple times around, thanks TomB for posting it.
Thank you TomB. Again on this day that was the 6th anniversary. You are greatly appreciated as are all who posted their thoughts, prayers and continued support. Michaels buddies from his hometown of Kingston, Okla. started a Memorial Swim for Mikey. Started the first one right after his services in 2008. Told me about it in 2009 and I attended to see his buds all geared up with lifejackets and swimming across a point at Lake Texoma called Caney Creek. Swimming from Caney Creek East, to Caney Creek West. Well over 400 yards! After letting them know that if lifejackets were in, I was in!! Since then my Family has made this swim every year. After about the third year, Michaels buddy Alex Ward, who started it and I were having a conversation about Michael and I told him I wanted to start a Military Scholarship Fund to give at Kingston High School to an individual who first, was joining the US Army Infantry, second to an individual who was going into US Army Aviation, and third to an individual who was going into any branch of the military. Now Alex has always had T shirts made and just gave them away to friends, but he suggested that I take this over and start selling the T shirts to fund the Scholarship. Since then we have started selling dogtags, HeroBracelets, t shirts and patches and have done fairly well. I have presented the Scholarship to 3 individuals so far and take great Honor in doing so. This year we had about 20 swimmers join us in our swim and probably another 25 onlookers and raised over $1400 for Scholarships and financing of items for the next years swim. Any who would like to check it out are welcomed to friend me on facebook at Kory Michael Thompson in Harrah, Oklahoma. Please note on your friend request that you are PCGS folks, and any in the area of course are welcomed to join us. Thanks again for the continued support. BRdude
AKA kokimoki the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed Join the NRA and protect YOUR right to keep and bear arms To protest against all hunting of game is a sign of softness of head, not soundness of heart. Theodore Roosevelt [L]http://www.ourfallensoldier.com/ThompsonMichaelE_MemorialPage.html[L]
@TomB said:
It has been 15-years now since Cpl. Thompson, a member of our extended numismatic family, was lost while performing a duty for his country.
Hard to believe ... 15 years.
For those who gave all, from those of us who gave some ... always and forever
“We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”
Comments
Very touching image.
Is this a proud Dad?? God bless Cpl. Michael Thompson's family.
<< <i>Your a good man TomB. Thank you for this post. >>
I agree, wonderful and very thoughtful post Tom.
Stefanie
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CoinsAreFun Toned Silver Eagle Proof Album
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Gallery Mint Museum, Ron Landis& Joe Rust, The beginnings of the Golden Dollar
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More CoinsAreFun Pictorials NGC
It's important not to forget the sacrifices made by others.
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed
Join the NRA and protect YOUR right to keep and bear arms
To protest against all hunting of game is a sign of softness of head, not soundness of heart. Theodore Roosevelt
[L]http://www.ourfallensoldier.com/ThompsonMichaelE_MemorialPage.html[L]
<< <i>They say "time heals all wounds". I don't know about that, after 4 years now its still hard to believe and deal with. To be remembered. Now thats important, and my heartfelt thanks go to each of you. >>
Here's your link for Cpl. Michael E. Thompson.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
The Longest Flight
It was a hot day in September in the country of Kuwait, a day that no one will soon forget. The mission was simple; fly four CH-47D Chinooks from Udari, Kuwait to Balad, Iraq. The planning was simple: point A to point B with a fuel stop in the middle. What happened that night would become anything but simple.
September 17, 2008 was the day. We were the last of twelve Chinooks scheduled to make the trip. The days had dragged by since the last flight had left. Days spent packing up our overnight bags and preparing the aircraft to fly only to find out once again we did not have the weather to go. Six solid days of this drill had already passed since the last flight left. We were all anxious to get going and get settled in Balad. We were at the beginning of our tour and knew we had a long way to go. The sooner we got there and started doing the mission the better. Our day started like every day the week before; we get up, pack, and prepare the aircraft to fly. This day, though, we all had a good feeling about it. The weather looked good outside and our hopes were up that we would go. “Today‘s the day”, was heard all throughout our tent. We were all smiles and jokes. “Today’s the day.” While sitting on my cot and watching a movie on my laptop, I noticed 1LT Vallejo walk in hurriedly and begin talking, so I dropped my headphones down and heard the words I was waiting to hear, “We got weather, were going!” Quickly everyone grabbed their stuff and headed out to the flight line. The birds were untied, windows cleaned, baggage secured, weapons mounted, all with practiced speed. We briefed at the lead aircraft and waited for the briefed takeoff time. Shortly before takeoff time, all the aircraft were cranked and we began repositioning for takeoff. We lined up in chalk order. Chalk one was Red River 26, chalk two was Red River 45, chalk three was Red River 44, and chalk four was Red River 41. I was in chalk two. The engines were roaring and the blades were thumping, we were ready to go. “Red River 26 and flight this is Udari tower.” “Udari tower Red River 26 go.” “Red River 26 be advised we have updated weather, visibility has just dropped to 2 and ¾ miles at the airfield.” “Roger that tower.” My heart sank as I listened to the words. The next communication gave me hope again. “Flight this is 26, tower has advised that visibility has dropped to 2 ¾ here at the field, all other weather along the route is still good, in chalk order advise if you are good to proceed.” We talked it over in the aircraft as a crew and agreed that we felt good about going. “45 is good to go.” “44 is good to go.” “41 is good to go.” “And flight this is 26, we are good to go.” “Tower this is Red River 26 and flight we are ready for departure at this time.” Man it felt good to be finally leaving. One by one we took off on our way to Balad. The time was about 23:21 local. Shortly after takeoff, I was scanning my sector and noticed that it was a dark night and there was very little in the way of cultural features. As we progressed along our route, the horizon was becoming more and more difficult to make out. The ground was beginning to blend with the sky in a greenish haze due to the NVGs. At one point, I experienced a brief moment of spatial disorientation. It was only for a fraction of a second and I was able to regain focus, so I didn’t think much of it at the time. This moment of disorientation was a telling sign of what was to come. We had been flying for around twenty minutes at this point. My primary concern was the aircraft’s orientation as it related to the formation. I was watching chalk one and ensuring that we had plenty of safe distance, and scanning for other traffic out the right side. On the ramp SGT Vasquez had the best view of the rest of the formation so he was keeping an eye on chalks three and four. The left side was covered by the left gunner CPL Skipworth. While scanning my sector, I began to notice that chalk three was fading back from our aircraft approximately a 1/8th of a mile. This was further than we had briefed but given the horizon and the dark night I wasn’t overly concerned, in fact as long as I could see them I felt more distance was better than too close. The atmosphere in the aircraft was becoming very tense. We were losing the horizon and everyone was concentrating heavily on their duties. In the distance, we saw a series of lights. At first, we believed these to be a village. CPL Skipworth announced, “That’s no village, it’s a convoy. That’s MSR Tampa down there.” I was glad for the lights because this was the first real horizon we had had for some time. As we approached the convoy, I checked on chalk three. They had faded further from us and were now almost a quarter of a mile back. They were still in sight and still did not cause me any concern. I was looking at chalk one and then down as we crossed the convoy. After crossing them we began making a slight left turn. Suddenly the right side of the aircraft lit up in my goggles nearly causing them to shut down. I thought one of our flares had gone off only it was much brighter. At that same time I saw the flash, SGT Vasquez came over the ICS and said, “Chalk three is down, chalk three is down; they crashed!” My heart sank to the pit of my stomach and I desperately tried to get a fix on their position. The radios came alive with all the radio calls from chalk four saying the same thing, and chalk one trying to confirm what we all feared. Suddenly, my pilot announced, “I am going spatial, I’m spatial.” I felt the aircraft lurch into a turn and go nose down. I immediately came off of my gun and into the companion way. I flipped up my goggles and searched the instruments. Finding the Attitude indicator, I announced, “You are in a nose down right turn, pull up and turn left.” I felt the nose come up but I felt us go further into a left turn. “Correction, you are in a left turn, come right, come right!” The pilot responded at once and the aircraft leveled off. I had misdiagnosed the turn initially. Now we had another problem, where were the other aircraft? CW2 McGill, the pilot on the controls asked, “Where is chalk one?” “I have chalk one at 10 O’clock ½ mile, they are turning left towards the crash,” relayed CPL Skipworth. “I don’t have them, where are they, and chalk four?” “I have chalk one in sight they are no factor and are at our 9,” said Skipworth. “Chalk four is at our 6 O’clock low about a mile back,” announced SGT Vasquez. While the other guys in the back were looking for the other aircraft, I was locked on three gauges, Attitude Indicator, Airspeed, and Altimeter. When we initially leveled off our altitude was 300 feet. We had lost 200 feet in about 3 seconds. The aircraft was now traveling at 70 knots down from 110 knots. Mr. McGill was still disoriented, and we were certainly all in some state of shock. Chalk three had just crashed. All we could see was the huge trail of flames left from the impact. Chalk one climbed up to initiate Fallen Angel procedures via the radio. Chalk four announced that they were going to land and see if they could help chalk three. Meanwhile we were still heading away from the crash site. The aircraft was very unstable during this time. We would go into a slight left turn, I would call the turn and corrections until we were level, then we would go nose down, nose up, right turn, left turn, loose airspeed, loose altitude, it was a constant struggle to help keep the aircraft oriented. Mr. McGill made all the corrections I called for. Finally he decided that we needed to turn around and try to stay in the vicinity of the other aircraft. We had traveled for several minutes putting us miles away from the other aircraft. SGT Vasquez announced where the other aircraft were and CPL Skipworth cleared us in the left turn. After we began heading back toward the other aircraft, Mr. McGill made the decision to climb up to 1,000 feet. I called his ascent and had him level the aircraft out of the turn. “You’re in a slight left turn, come right, wings are level, 600 ft, 80 knots. You are slightly nose down, pull up, wings level, 700 ft, 90 knots. You’re in a slight right turn, turn left, wings level.” I was constantly calling corrections, constantly scanning one instrument after the other. My whole world at this time was three instruments. They were the only hope offered to me, our only chance of surviving this. Time seemed to creep by, minutes seemed like days. Finally we reached 1000 feet, 1LT Stanski, applied Barometric Altitude Hold. I could breathe a little easier. The aircraft would hold at 1000, no more descents. I still checked the altitude to ensure we were holding at 1000. I didn’t want this to be the time it failed us and not notice until it was too late. Mr. McGill seemed to calm a little as well, the aircraft was somewhat stable now. I still announced the altitude, attitude and airspeed about every minute or so. These were really the only sounds for a while. I remember thinking over and over, “this isn’t happening, this isn’t happening.” Then the crash site would cross in front of us and I would see the flames. It was almost like a medieval runway set up with fire pits. It seemed to spread on forever. It was so bright that it would almost shut down my goggles when I looked through them. Chalk four had landed near the crash. I knew there was nothing we could do for them. Nothing anyone could do. I could see them down below just sitting on the ground, blades turning, and their glowing tail cones. I wished to be with them, to see if I could help my friends and to not be flying anymore. I wanted to be done with this flight. The radios had all kinds of traffic jumping in and out of my ears all of a sudden. Lt. Stanski had got us talking again. We had lost communications with the other aircraft so he worked frantically to reestablish communication. I heard that there were other aircraft enroute to the scene. Some of which were medevac. “…there are no survivors, please ensure you have recovery assets,” chalk one relayed to the medevac bird. It hit me like someone had just punched me square in the stomach. They were all dead. Part of me had a little hope that maybe chalk four had found someone alive, that they were treating them on their aircraft. That hope was smashed into a thousand pieces after one radio call. We orbited for what seemed an eternity. The carnage displayed for me on every left turn. A huge burning fire, and one lone Chinook sitting off to the side. One of the Chinooks vital and alive, the other ….just gone. “You’re in a slight left turn, come right, wings level.” After more than an hour on station at the crash site, chalk one called for fuel statuses of the flight. It was reported back that we were all getting dangerously close to bingo fuel. Another radio call was made to confirm the enroute aircraft and security forces. They were definitely on their way and a ground security team was a few minutes out. Lead made the call; we were to link up in flight and continue on to our planned fuel stop at Talil, Iraq. We couldn’t stay any longer or we would not make it to our fuel. We had to either go or land and not have the fuel to take back off. One more left turn, the fire and still the helicopter. That was the last time I would see them in their death. A part of my heart, and my unit’s heart was left there in the desert as we flew away. My friends were gone. CPT Robert Vallejo II, CW3 Brady Rudolf, SGT Daniel “Grumpy” Eshbaugh, SSG Luke Mason, CPL Michael “Tommy Gun” Thompson, and their passengers CW2 Corry Edwards, and SGM Julio Ordonez. May they rest in peace.
I tell this story to you who are reading with a heavy heart. My friends are gone, their families affected forever. So why do I tell this story? I tell it in the hopes that it will help prevent it from ever happening again. No one knows exactly what happened in that aircraft that night. The dead tell no tales. I do think there are certainly lessons to be learned from this tragedy. What would you have done in our places? What could have been done to prevent this? How can we keep it from happening again? I certainly don’t have all the answers. The aircrews that were involved in this accident have talked. We have banged our heads against the walls to answer these questions. We have tried to make some sense of it all. It just doesn’t make much sense. Hind sight is 20/20 so they say. So I will leave you with some of the thoughts we have had.
Spatial Disorientation is not just a subject we cover in our academic training, RL Progression and APARTs. It is a very real and potentially deadly phenomenon. Talk about it regularly. If you have experienced it share that with your soldiers and aircrews. Have a plan on how you are going to deal with it if it happens to you or in your aircraft.
Enlisted crew members, know the instruments of your helicopter and be available to help your pilots at any given moment. It certainly saved my life that night. The three big ones are Attitude indicator, Altimeters, and Airspeed. Get with your pilots and have them teach you how to read these instruments and where they are located at. Know them like the back of your hand.
Weather minimums are there for a reason. Only fly in weather you are briefed to fly in. Speaking of weather, insure that you are prepared for bad weather and have contingencies well planned and briefed. Know your inadvertent IMC break up plans and practice them. Be able to transition to instruments immediately if needed.
Effectively use Crew Coordination. Accomplish Pre-mission Planning; Effectively Manage Unexpected Events, Mutually Cross Monitor Crewmembers Actions, and on and on. The point is talk about everything within your aircraft and your flight. Crew Coordination is not just limited to your aircraft, but also involves the entire flight. If we had made a radio call to chalk three in relation to them falling back from our formation would it have made a difference? Maybe. Talk about everything and use good Crew Coordination.
Route Planning is also critical. In places of little to no contrast (i.e. Kuwait, western Iraq) where you may encounter zero horizon try to plan routes that utilize cultural features to break up the terrain, within the limits of METT-C. Lights are a Godsend. You do not have to fly directly over them but try to use them for references to help keep spatially oriented.
On the night of September 17th, 2008, I embarked on the longest flight of my military career. It was a simple point A to point B flight. It was a night I will never forget. It took me and my crew using all of our skills to survive that night. Bringing to bear courage that we didn’t know we had and staying focused in spite of all that happened. We survived; it is my sincere hope that you who are reading this will survive your “longest flight”.
This is dedicated to the Crew Members of Red River 44, their families, my fellow soldiers of B Co. 2-149 GSAB, and to all of you who read this. God Bless.
SSG Joseph Keyes
the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed
Join the NRA and protect YOUR right to keep and bear arms
To protest against all hunting of game is a sign of softness of head, not soundness of heart. Theodore Roosevelt
[L]http://www.ourfallensoldier.com/ThompsonMichaelE_MemorialPage.html[L]
I spent my year in Iraq escorting convoys up and down route Tampa. It is stories like this that help me remember the friends that were lost. Thank you for your family's sacrifice.
TomB thank you for keeping this soldiers story alive.
Nick Capuano
Veteran OIF III
Member, Society of Silver Dollar Collectors.
Looking for PCGS AU58+ 1901-P, 1896-O, & 1894-O
I have often wondered why you mentioned Corporal Thompson in your tag ......
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
Thanks so much for sharing that heart wrenching account by Joseph Keyes, who was a casualty of war just like your heroic son was.
It couldn't have been easy for you to revisit this but it's a story that needs to be told.
Missed this post the first couple times around, thanks TomB for posting it.
TTT.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed
Join the NRA and protect YOUR right to keep and bear arms
To protest against all hunting of game is a sign of softness of head, not soundness of heart. Theodore Roosevelt
[L]http://www.ourfallensoldier.com/ThompsonMichaelE_MemorialPage.html[L]
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
<< <i>Superb post, and one that helps appreciate a sacrifice that many of us cannot begin to comprehend. >>
My YouTube Channel
It has been 15-years now since Cpl. Thompson, a member of our extended numismatic family, was lost while performing a duty for his country.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Hard to believe ... 15 years.
For those who gave all, from those of us who gave some ... always and forever
“We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”
Todd - BHNC #242