I served on that mission 11 years ago..

Part of the OPS division and had the pleasure to serve with another
fellows Soldier who co-Sign is BlackFive

"They came to save us, and to give us dignity. Their sacrifice will
remain in the minds of our children for the rest of their lives. We will
teach their names to our children, and keep their names in our books of
history as heroes who gave their lives for freedom." - Kurd Sheik Ahmet,
April 17th, 1994 memorial service in Zakhu, Iraq

In April, 1991, as part of U.N. Resolution 688, the National Command
Authority commanded the US Armed Forces to conduct Operation Provide
Comfort. The mission was a tough one - to provide humanitarian aid to
over one million Kurdish Refugees in northern Iraq. We began with
airdrops (food, clothing, tents, blankets, medicine) a few days later.

General John Shalikashvili, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had
this to say about the hard work of the Provide Comfort Soldiers and
Airmen:

For over 1,000 days, the pilots and crews assigned to Operation Provide
Comfort flew mission after mission, totalling over 50,000 hours...

To further stop Saddam from killing the Kurds, a northern No-Fly Zone
was placed north of the 36th parallel. Any Iraqi aircraft would be shot
down in the No-Fly Zone.

The No-Fly Zone was patrolled and kept "clean" by the USAF with fighters
(F-15s) being supported by command and control aircraft (AWACS).

On April 14th, 1994, two Blackhawk helicopters were ready for take-off
from Diyarbakir, Turkey. COL Jerry Thompson - one of the best soldiers I
had evet met - was changing command (or co-command as "command" of
Provide Comfort was shared with Turkey). He decided to show his
replacement, COL Mulhern, the lay of the land. At 0730, COL Thompson
assembled 26 people that comprised important (command group) roles for
the mission. He included French, British, and Turkish commanders and
laisons, and also brought along Kurdish para-military personnel and
linguists.

The two Blackhawks were designated Eagle-1 and Eagle-2. Their first
destination was Irbil, Iraq, but they would have to make a stop in
Zakhu, Iraq (where the military part of Provide Comfort operated). There
were plans to visit several other areas as well.

At 8:22AM, Eagle Flight departed Diyarbakir. They were headed
East-Southeast for a "gate" into the No-Fly Zone. Per Standard Operating
Procedure, the command group was split between Eagle-1 and Eagle-2 to
ensure continuity of command if one helicopter went down.

At 9:21AM, Eagle Flight called the AWACS (callsign "Cougar"). They
requested and were granted permission to enter the "gate" into the the
No-Fly Zone.

At 9:24AM, Eagle Flight lands at Zakhu, Iraq.

At 9:35AM, two USAF F-15 fighters launched from Incirlik, Turkey. They
were designated Tiger-1 and Tiger-2. Tiger-1 was the lead fighter with
Tiger-2 as the wingman. Tiger Flight was headed to patrol the No-Fly
Zone.

At 9:54AM, Eagle Flight calls the AWACS to report departure from Zakhu,
Iraq, with a destination of Irbil, Iraq.

At 10:12AM, Eagle Flight enters mountainous terrain. It's Identification
Friend or Foe system (IFF) failed.

At 10:20AM Tiger Flight passes through "gate" into No-Fly Zone.

At 10:22AM Tiger Flight picks up radar contact at forty nautical miles.
No IFF reading occurs. Tiger-1 reports, "Cougar, picked up helicopter
tracking northwest bound." AWACS says the area should be "clean".

At 10:25 AWACS responds that there are "hits there" in the No-Fly Zone -
confirming Tiger Flight's radar contact.

Tiger Flight makes visual contact with Eagle Flight at five nautical
miles.

At 10:28 Tiger-1 conducts a visual identification (VID) pass of the
helicopters. "Cougar, tally 2 HINDS."

HINDS are Soviet Helicopters used by the Iraqi Armed Forces.

AWACS replied, "Copy two HINDS".

Tiger-1 then instructed Tiger-2 to make a VID pass.

Thirty seconds later Tiger-2 confirms, "Tally 2."

Tiger-1 to Tiger-2, "Arm hot."

At 10:30AM on April 14, 1994, Tiger-1 fired an AIM 120 (medium range
air-to-air missle) at Eagle-2. Tiger-2 fired an AIM 9 (Sidewinder
air-to-air missle) at Eagle-1.

The missles hit Eagle Flight with deadly accuracy. Tiger-1 confirmed the
hits to AWACS, "Splash two HINDS."

There were no survivors..


I Make this post to honor and in Remembrance of my friends

SSG Paul Barclay (SF Commo NCO)
SPC Cornelius A. Bass (Eagle-1 Door Gunner)
SPC Jeffrey C. Colbert (Eagle-1 Crew Chief)
SPC Mark A. Ellner (Eagle-2 Door Gunner)
CW2 John W. Garrett, Jr. (Eagle-1 Pilot)
CW2 Michael A. Hall (Eagle-2 Pilot Command)
SFC Benjamin T. Hodge (Linguist)
CPT Patrick M. McKenna (Eagle-1 Pilot Command)
WO1 Erik S. Mounsey (Eagle-2 Pilot)
COL Richard A. Mulhern (Incoming Co-Commander)
1LT Laurie A. Piper (USAF, Intel Officer)
SGT Michael S. Robinson (Eagle-2 Crew Chief)
SSG Ricky L. Robinson (SF Medic)
Ms. Barbara L. Schell (State Dept. Political Advisor)
COL Jerald L. Thompson (Outgoing Co-Commander)

British Military:
MAJ Harry Shapland (Security/Intel Duty Officer)
LTC Jonathan C. Swann (Senior UK Officer)

French Military:
LTC Guy Demetz (Senior French Officer)

Turkish Army:
COL Hikmet Alp (Co-Commander)
LT Ceyhun Civas (Laison Officer)
LT Barlas Gultepe (Liason Officer)

Kurdish Partisans:
Abdulsatur Arab
Ghandi Hussein
Bader Mikho
Ahmad Mohammed
Salid Said (Linguist)

actuality 16 years ago.

so why didn't they know the difference between a Hind and a
Blackhawk???


i am sorry for your loss....colateral damage i think it's called over
there.

There are three types of Blackhawks used :

The first one,

US UH-60 blackhawk Helicopter is for Transport.
It is ideal for loading in a bunch of paratroopers, running them over to
the other side of the map and supporting them with machine gun fire.
Hovering just off to the side of the flag the Blackhawk can suppress
resistance all around from above allowing your paratroopers to move in
and take the target.
The Blackhawk hovers easily, is very stable and is quite easy to land as
it has a wide footprint and is quite stable because the larger rotors
allow it to compensate for its weight.
It has an auto-hover feature for us button tappers. By holding down the
Alt-Fire button you can hover nice and even. The only time I find this
useful is for hovering and landing straight down from a hover. You can
move around very slowly this way but any cyclic pitch will lower your
altitude so you will have to adjust your collective anyway. I wouldn't
rely on it because its only found on the Blackhawks (no pilot weapons)
and you won't find it on any of the other helicopters. There's way more
control when you've mastered the button tapping rhythm, which on the
Blackhawk is very easy.


The second one:

UH-60L has Hellfire missiles you can fire at ground targets but thats it
and only carries one co-pilot with you. Use this in supporting
paratroopers as well by eliminating hardware threats. The missiles fire
off pretty quick so you'll be doing a lot of running back to reload.


The third one:

UH-60Q medic chopper is able to heal people as well as resupply them
(but not vehicles) and, used effectively, could turn the tide of battle.
Hover over your front lines to heal people and pass out ammo packs. Pick
up your injured and ferry them to the next spot where you can drop them
all healed up and ready to go. Heed those pick up and medic calls, they
are now talking to you directly.

-------------------------------------------------

Iraqi Mi-24 (Hind) Helicopter

Kept on a short leash it can be a extremely effective as its the fastest
chopper out there.


A hind can carry almost as many weapons as the Apache helicopter can.
The Hind has a payload of 64 S-5 rockets and 4 AT-2 missiles but what
you see is what you get. While you do get one missile reload in the air
there is no second weapons bank for reloading the rockets. The gunner
controls the autocannon in the nose and its arc of fire is a lot bigger
than the Apache's. Not bad for a transport helicopter. In the latest
build the Hind can transport a co-pilot and 2 passengers. The doors no
longer open and there is no "exiting" with the doors closed anymore so
no more repairing the Hind in flight.