Posted on 06/17/2007 7:31:30 AM PDT by SandRat
A UH-1 Huey, flown by members of the Iraqi Air Force Military Transition Team flew Iraqi Minister of Defense Ali Allawi to Combat Outpost “Old Mod,” marking the first time an Iraqi aircraft has landed there.
The UH-1 Huey consisted of one Iraqi pilot, one American pilot and one American gunner, said U.S. Army Sgt. Class Eric D. Radecki, the operations noncommissioned officer-in-charge for the 1st Brigade, 11th Iraqi Army Division’s MiTT, which is comprised of members of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division.
“Prior to this you’d see a lot of higher ranking Iraqis flying on American birds,” Radecki said. “Now that they’re flying on Iraqi aircraft, it’s one more step to doing things on their own, without our support.”
Ali Allawi was making a scheduled stop to inspect members of the 11th Iraqi Army Division and see how they were progressing, he said.
“The Air Force MiTT team briefed the (2nd BCT) MiTT team on the Iraqi Air Force’s step in learning anti-terrorism tactics,” Radecki said. “They will soon gain that air-mobile ability.”
Gaining air mobility will allow Iraqis to put troops out into a sector at a moments notice and it will also enable them to conduct targeted raids and reduce the danger for their Soldiers by reducing the need for convoys, Radecki said.
While the Iraqi Huey’s has some maintenance issues, they are being addressed, he said.
“Hopefully we’ll see more Iraqi aircraft flying over the capital doing patrols,” Radecki said.
The Iraqi Air Force currently continues to train in aerial operations. Their ability to operate and maintain their own aircraft continues to advance them to operating independently.
(U.S. Army story by Spc. Courtney Marulli, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division Public Affairs)
In other developments throughout Iraq:
FR WAR NEWS!You’d think the White House would make an effort to put this stuff out more!
Tony Snow is too busy trying to put lipstick on the ‘Shamnesty Pig’!
It’s great to see the old venerable UH-1H still flying.
I was in the IL guard back in 91 and that was the first aircraft I worked on, Avionics.
Some of the old NAV equipment still used tubes, lol.
There is something really beautiful about the Whop-Whop sound of one of those babies coming and it reminds you how many past soldiers heard that noise as a blessed angel coming to take them to safety or lay on some much needed heavy fire.
I loved hearing that sound after a prolonged training session.Many men had an extreme dislike for them,but I always knew it would not be long before we were at home base.And the firepower came in handy many times.I held a very high respect for the men who flew them.I felt they deserved more recognition than was given.May be wrong on that.I hope so.
There is a rather embarassing mistake in the article. The Iraqi minister of defence is Abdel Qadir Obeidi and not Ali Allawi. The latter is an ex defence minister and now lives in the US (recently featured on FR with a book on Iraq).
Spc. Courtney Marulli goofed and so did his OIC.
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