The blades were already turning on the noisy helicopter when the two of them got there. The aircraft’s pilots had accomplished their pre-flight checks and loaded all of the cargo for the night’s missions. They were only 5 minutes early for the flight and felt the rush to get going. The flights lead aircraft had already repositioned to another part of the immense base. It was to be a routine mission. Pick up some cargo and passengers here and drop them off there. Nothing either of them hadn’t done already seemingly thousands of times. Yet the air was filled with tension that night as they stepped off the hummer that had carried them out to the flight line. It was a nervous tension. Like someone was watching them through the scope of a high powered rifle. Yet no shots rang out and still the Blackhawk called out to them loudly. The message was clear. Both crewchiefs grabbed their M-60D machine guns and the rest of their flight gear and hurried over to the waiting helicopter. "Hurry up!" exclaimed the pilots as one crewchief plugged into the aircraft’s ICS (inter-comm system). "We gotta go!"

"Yeah! Of course! Have you ever known us to be late?" The two UH-60 Blackhawk crewchiefs were trying to reassure their pilot’s that it would be ok to take off to chow almost one hour before takeoff. "We haven’t eaten yet" said one. "We’ll just eat and run" reinforced the other. The pilots stared at them for a couple of minutes and then, "Alright…but bring us back some food". "No problem sir!" And off they went in their M998 HMMWV. After rounding the bend on the only road to and from the airfield their headlights swept across one of the unit’s other pilots walking the road. "Would you like a ride sir?" the driver asked pulling onto the mud soaked shoulder. "Yeah! Where you headed?" "To grab a quick bite" The driver responded. Grabbing an ammo can to keep from soaking his unused flight suit, he sat down and they continued down the pot-hole infested road. "Someone ought to put in to get this road fixed" the pilot said. "You aint ly’in sir". "But as usual they’ll just tell us to make it happen" was the response he got. Makes it Happen had become their motto for a multitude of reasons. As with all military unit’s they always felt they were the ones who held up their battalion. Others would probably argue otherwise but they didn’t care. Breaking the silence one crewchief stated the obvious, "We need to eat fast and get back to the flight line". He was always being the A.D.D. child of the company. Always worrying about getting into trouble over the little things in life, he would constantly nag and gripe at people for the dumbest little things. "Calm down, we’ll be fine" stated the other. Almost the complete opposite he could talk most people into anything. The ultimate salesman it seemed at times. It was quite entertaining to watch the two decide how things should be done. And yet at the same time, A.D.D. boy was all but uncontrollable. He had spent most of his life right on the edge. Always doing what others looked at as completely insane. But ask him to do something while his boss was watching and he became the most conservative sourpuss on the face of the planet. Pulling into the chow hall they parked their vehicle and headed for dinner. After shuffling through the various lines for food and eating their meals, they headed back for their pilot’s dinners. "We have lots of time" they told each other. "No worries!" "Hell, I should have brought my laundry!" one said jokingly. Neither one fully aware of what was actually happening back at the flight line, they lazily headed for the hummer parked in front of the dining facility.

Arriving at their company CP, both crewchiefs walked into the tent for their machine guns where they asked a fellow soldier to drive them out to the airfield. Having retrieved all necessary gear and a driver they headed for the aircraft. What awaited them was furthest from their minds at the time. Two aircraft were running full tilt. And worse yet, one of them was right where theirs had been parked less than an hour ago! That could only mean one thing. "Oh-shit!" cried one as they realized they had just messed up royally. Having their companies unit trainer and commander on board they couldn’t have picked a worse crew to show up late on. Both were furious. After attaching their weapons to the airframe, putting on their flight gear, and donning their flight helmets they plugged in. "Where the hell have you two been?!" cried out the pilots. "We brought you dinner sir" one of them said sheepishly in an ill fated attempt to ease the situation. As they pulled pitch the pilots explained the night’s mission and they headed for their first PZ (pick-up zone). Upon landing the crewchiefs jumped out and immediately lept to work. Being way behind the power curve they still had to secure all of their cargo, which the pilot’s had loaded, and make room for the eight pax (passengers) they were about to take on board. If the mission had been anything else, they probably would have been shot on site having delayed it for such a trivial reason. But luck was on their side as it was a simple pax haul. Even so, mission times were mission times and they knew it. Luckily their passengers were late to the first spot. That fact alone more than likely saved their hides from being sent back to a maintenance unit. Lifting off from the pad the aircraft seemed almost over packed. All passengers were holding their own bags in the rear of the helicopter while the boxes and excess bags were stuffed to the ceiling in the forward section, between the passengers feet, and between the crewchiefs. Had the crewchiefs shown up on time they probably could have adjusted the interior of the aircraft to properly accommodate the load they were being forced to take. Taking off into the night both crew members in the back of the UH-60 thanked their lucky stars for having been able to pull themselves together fast enough to continue the mission. They flew the rest of the night stopping in multiple places and moving people all over the little country they were visiting. Returning home from a long, cold night they prepared themselves for what was certain to come. Reality and one pissed off commander were about to slap them in the face.