Airman Killed in Helo Crash Was Afghan Rescue Hero

The airman killed in a helicopter crash on Okinawa was a decorated para-rescue veteran whose effort to recover a wounded soldier was captured in one of the most iconic combat photos to come from the war in Afghanistan, the Air Force said Saturday.

Tech. Sgt. Mark A. Smith, a flight engineer with the 33rd Rescue Squadron who had deployed twice to Afghanistan, died in the Aug. 5 crash of his HH 60G Pave Hawk helicopter while on a training mission at the Central Training Area on the Marine base at Camp Hansen, Okinawa, the Air Force said.

My nephew is a PJ stationed here in Alaska. He comes up hunting with us when he ain't in Afghanistan, (which seems like 4-5 months every year; last few years). He got a silver star and two bronze stars with valor that were from his last several deployments; had them in my own hands when he came up. I told him to bring them up, wanted to see them myself. I was in military at end of Vietnam and I never seen any personally back then.

He really likes his career, getting sent outta country regular is part of the job he feels. They are quite professional and put their lives on the line for America.

He got the silver star when they pinned down 6 hrs with 40-50 Afghans shooting at them. Their pave hawk had 3 RPGs shot at them, missed, was hit by small arms fire and had hydraulic problems, and their flight engineer was hit and bleeding all over the place. The one pilot was helping the flight engineer and other pilot radioed down to the nephew that they couldn't get the dead pilot from down'd little bird out; second pilot had already been picked up by second pave hawk pilot. Nephew and his partner told pilot they weren't leaving without the dead pilot and their pave hawk had to return to base; leaving them there with a bunch of local Afghans giving them a decent welcoming. Nephew told me he thought it was it for him right then and there, but training takes over and everything ends up ok. So Army reactionary team was sent in, took some heat off them , but 4 of the team were killed and they were pulled out. Nephew said the Army team gave them the time to drag dead pilot's body down a ravine and Afghans lost track of them for a couple hours. They started shooting at them again and he said they got shot at every 1/2 hour or so for several hours as they continued to hide out and move down the ravine. Finally the Apaches, A-10, and Americans arrived and rocketed the crap outta the locals and they ran off; nephew, buddy, and dead pilot got out alive. Apparently, the team had decided they weren't leaving without the dead pilot's body, no matter what, BIG BALLS I'd say. Not sure I could do the same with good conscious. I think that choice had something to do with the silver star. No joke, the nephew said he'd do it all over again in a minute. I have a pict on my camera with him with medals in his hand and papers in background, but haven't got them on my photo bucket yet. Actually, he doesn't seem too impressed with awards, but I sure was. They had article in Stars & stripes and also Bagram AF paper back when it happened.

So so much for the story what my PJ nephew experienced. Those guys are for real and there's only a few hundred of them in the AF. High class, patriotic, red blooded, conservative minded Americans for sure. Those PJs need all our respect and they give their lives for our country just like Americans have all down through our history.

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