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My experience is five years in a SOF unit and several more working national and theater level GWOT support in Iraq and Afghanistan, as military and as a contractor. I've written doctrine for the Army, participated in or overseen hundreds of raids, and taught hundreds of conventional Army operators as part of a program to bring SOF tactics to the conventional forces. I've spent more time based out of Bagram or Baghdad or Fort Meade in the last ten years than I have anywhere else.

So.

If 160th SOAR had a mechanical problem, for instance, a Tier 1 element is going to take whatever other asset is handy. Because they can. They have enough theater level pull to basically commandeer resources as needed. SOF resources are top notch in quality but limited in quantity. Theater resources are more plentiful, and often co-opted to fill the gap. If they need QRF, they'll task it through their liasons with the conventional side. Same goes for aviation, ISR or whatever they want.

If a National Guard helicopter was handy, and they needed it, they'd simply reassign it on the spot. If the local commander had a problem with that, one phone call to Bagram would have him singing a different tune. There's nothing unusual or nefarious about it. They wing things all the time, if they have to.

I don't know that's what happened, nor would I post it if I did. I will say that I've flown in or through Wardak regularly for almost two years, and been shot at doing it. The idea that some insurgent got a lucky shot with an RPG isn't hard to grasp. Everyone runs the risk, and operators who are in K/C operations risk it all the more.

To refine what I am now hearing. It was a NG helo (flown by the 160th SOAR). I yield to your experience.

Thank you for your voice of experience and reason......my boy is a 53 pilot and his current address is Bastion.......