AJC.com > Iraq coverage > Blog > Archives > 2005 > June > 25 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USSkies of Baghdad safer than ground
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Camp Taji, Iraq — The flares began popping from the Black Hawk helicopter over the slums of Baghdad’s Sadr City.
Intensely red and white, the fireworks would have been right at home in the night sky over any Fourth of July celebration back in the U.S.
But over Baghdad, they mean something far more menacing.
The flares pop out when someone electronically targets the aircraft — a possible prelude to a surface-to-air missile attack.
A mirrored sensor that looks like a 1970s disco ball on the back of the Army helicopter picks up the threat and sends cascading flares as aerial decoys for heat-seeking missiles.
“The system has a mind of its own,” said Chief Warrant Officer Ruben Rivera, 31, of San Juan, Puerto Rico, the pilot. “Sometimes the flares surprise me, too. They go off all the time around here.”
The Black Hawks are regular visitors here, crisscrossing the Baghdad skyline dozens of times a day in a military shuttle service known as the “Marne Express.”
The name comes from the Fort Stewart-based 3rd Infantry Division, whose longtime nickname is “Rock of the Marne” (from a heroic stand it made during World War I). The division sends a pair of Black Hawks three times daily to about a dozen military installations around the city.
The Marne Express has become the main mode of travel for soldiers in the Georgia Army National Guard’s 48th Brigade Combat Team as they hopscotch from base to base.
Helicopters are preferred because they keep soldiers away from deadly roadside bombs, which are the weapon of choice for the insurgents.
No missiles arose from the sprawling slums this day, just the stench of poverty.
During a two-hour circuit around Baghdad this week, the view from the helicopter quickly changed.
The urban cityscapes gave way to lush palm groves and the blue Tigris River. From there, the fortresslike “Green Zone” appeared below before it was left behind for squalid slums and the arid wasteland south of the city where American bases are encircled by concrete barriers, dirt berms and miles of razor wire.
The helicopters are armed with machine guns and travel in pairs. They rarely fly more than 10 minutes between takeoffs and landings.
Each is equipped with a satellite Global Positioning System. But Rivera, a compact, self-confident flier in the midst of his second yearlong combat tour in Iraq, knows the area by heart and prefers to navigate by looking out the window.
He varies his route and schedule each day to make himself a less inviting or predictable target.
He also flies low and fast for the same reason, sometimes climbing to clear buildings and power lines.
The 11-passenger Black Hawks still come back with bullet holes, though. Fancy flares are powerless against plain, old-fashioned bullets — and the helicopters seem to attract more than their fair share. But, so far, all of the Marne Express flights have come home from their missions safely.
On this relatively clear morning, air traffic controllers informed Rivera and his crew that a portion of Baghdad’s airspace was off limits due to “multiple explosions.” Several suicide bombers blew up themselves and their cars, killing more than 40 people.
Apache attack helicopters were prowling the area around the attacks. Black smoke was on the horizon.
Listening to the conversation between Rivera and his co-pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Brian Hegenbart, as they skimmed the hostile terrain, it sounded like a couple of guys enduring another dull day at the office, not two men risking their lives.
They banked hard over Baghdad International Airport, passed by a huge minaret they call the Space Needle and dropped like an anvil into the Green Zone at a tiny, walled heliport with barely enough room for both Black Hawks and their spinning rotor blades.
Rivera’s helicopter shuddered as it hovered a few feet above the ground, then plunked down and rolled to a quick stop.
Three passengers scurried out and two more climbed in.
“Only six point six hours to go,” said Hegenbart, 30, a career soldier from Sacramento, Calif.
Rivera nodded in agreement.
“Do you want to fly the next leg or should I?” Rivera asked. “On a day like this, I could fly all day.”
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Kelly McCloud
June 25, 2005 10:59 AM | Link to this
46 MORE MONDAYS and we will celebrate our HOMECOMING of our soldiers!!!!! To SPC Dana P. McCloud, 1-108th AR, not a day goes by that you are not thought of!!! Ryan, Mikayla, Sarah and I love you, miss you and pray for you each day!!! We are very proud of you!!!! With all my love - today, tomorrow, FOREVER, Kelly
By butch wilson
June 25, 2005 07:58 PM | Link to this
guys you are in our prayers every day STAY SAFE!!!!!!!!!!!
By Melinda Faulkner
June 27, 2005 01:01 AM | Link to this
To my husband CPL. Stephen Faulkner Charlie 1-108th. I am very proud of you and miss you terribly. Timothy and Savanah want to say “I love you daddy”. Your loving wife. To SSGT Mike Flynn (where ever you are) stay safe. The kids say “Hello uncle Mike”. We are praying for both of you and the rest of the soldiers.
By Carroline Owens
June 27, 2005 12:41 PM | Link to this
To Cpl Robert Waples II - you are truly missed and are in my prayers every day. The entire gang wishes you well and hopes that you return home safe and soon. I can’t tell you enough how proud of you and all the troops over there for continually protecting us and being so selfless about it. I love you. May God bless you and keep you.