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A huge groan. I have watched "Blackhawk Down" three times this week. And when I was stationed at Ft Rucker the Blackhawk was an in the experimental stage. It was fun to watch the test pilots put them through there paces.

I am ready for some shooting. I hope it wasn't some terrorist getting lucky with a shoulder fired missile. I don't want them to have anything to boost their confidence. I will take a mechanical failure over a terrorist success any day.

Prayers for the families of the deceased.

Highly unlikely that it was from a missle since our IR suppression and jamming can defeat any seekers not on in our possession.

More likely it was a training accident under NVG with the cause either being brown out during the approach (sand blowing up and obscuring the crew's visual reference to the ground) or inability to detect rising terrain or an obstruction.

In the first go around I flew MEDEVAC and from the period of Aug thru Dec most of my evacs on a night aviation accident was due to one of those two causes, including the evac of another MEDEVAC crew that hit a 200 foot sand dune at high speed while enroute to the Combat Support Hospital with an urgent patient onboard. All survived, thank goodness.

Flying a military mission-low level-at night-under goggles-in featureless terrain is a highly perishable skill and can make for some high adrenaline moments even for the most experienced of pilots and crew chiefs. In this mode of flight, at any given second and for any multitude of reasons-things suddenly go wrong and recovery becomes impossible.

Ironically, I just flew an NVG training flight with a new WO1 out of flight school who is younger than my daughter. She turned 22 last November.

Tomorrow night when we strap on the Black Hawk to complete his NVG progression training you can be assured that this will be a topic for discussion, relfection and learning.

Soon he too will be joining the procession to Kuwait. I always worry that I've done enough when I certify these youngsters as trained and qualified although I'm sure that my old instructors had the same concerns for me at one time...

I'm rambling. Mostly I just lurk but tonight is exceptional. Those kids who made the ultimate sacrifice today are from my old unit. Please have them, their comrades and their families in your prayers tonight.

God Bless.

If you have NOT seen it... you MUST see:
We Were Once Soldiers... with Mel Gibson.

ONE time with it, will completely raise your spirits as a soldier, a fighting man, or even just a red-blooded american.

INCREDIBLE... and accurate.
Black hawk down made me sick... I sat through it twice to try and make sure it was not only me that kept thinking, perhaps even saying "damn you clintong" from beginning to end.