In April we had an Air Assault mission with the infantry from Normandy. They wanted to raid a small village west of Baqubah that reportedly has numerous Anti-Iraqi Forces (AIF). I reported to the company formation at 2035. My co-pilot went to pre-flight and I checked out the NVGs and M4s. The commander wanted to talk to the company before we all started our pre-mission duties.

Too late, my co-pilot had already gone to the flight line. He gave us a talk anyway on how this would be a difficult mission and hoped everyone made it back safely. "This is the most difficult mission this Battalion has done up to this point," he said. Later we would all agree. We were then told to pre-flight, load our aircraft with all the mission equipment and be ready to catch a ride to the 150^{th’s MWR building for the mission briefing. The briefing was conducted on a Power Point presentation.}

The Anti-Iraqi Forces (AIF) or insurgents have been operating in a village between Warhorse and Normandy, east of Baqubah. There’s one major road through the area known as RPG alley because of constant enemy ambushes on coalition convoys. It parallels a stream with date palms providing refuge and concealment for the enemy. I’d been told before that it was the date palm capitol of the world. The insurgents have operated from there with impunity because it’s remote. It has one road in and out which provides them with enough warning to escape whenever attempts have been made to move ground forces in to capture or kill them.

Our mission was to swiftly fly enough troops in to overwhelm the area and concentrate on a few targeted locations of reported leaders before they had enough time or warning to escape. We were going to do it under darkness, before sunrise and hopefully catch them at their most vulnerable time. The enemy was reported to be mostly foreign fighters who came to Iraq to die, either fighting or as suicide bombers. So we were anticipating a fight if we cornered them. We had CH-47 Chinooks, AH-64 Apache gunships, C-130 Specter gunships, F-15s and UAVs participating. It was a big operation to say the least. The overall operation was called "Hammer Rain" and our portion was called "Morning Rain."

The briefing lasted about 2 hours and I was Chalk 3 or the third Black Hawk in the first formation of five Black Hawks. We had a second formation or serial of five Black Hawks behind us and a formation of five Chinooks ahead of us. Each Chinook was assigned to land their troops in a separate landing zone (LZ) for a total of five LZs. My formation would split up just prior to landing. I would follow the first two Black Hawks into an LZ a Chinook would be departing. Chalks 4 &5 would land in a separate LZ nearby that another Chinook would be departing. Then we’d return to pick up another load of troops and all five in my formation would deploy them to a different LZ. After the briefing we hurried to get to our aircraft to make the scheduled take off time.

We departed on time enroute to Warhorse for fuel prior to picking up the infantry. Only two aircraft could refuel at a time, so I awaited my turn. The first two aircraft had already departed after refueling so I was now lead with one aircraft behind me to our pick up zone (PZ) at Normandy to rendezvous with all the other aircraft. My co-pilot was flying and I was helping navigate with the GPS (Global Position Satellite) to Normandy. It was a dark moonless night and we had a little trouble finding Normandy because the waypoints on the GPS and the map didn’t match. We made a quick correction and found Normandy and began our approach. I discovered that our IR (infrared) search light was no longer working. We descended to about 15 – 20 feet above ground and soon lost sight of the ground due to the blowing sand and dust kicked up by our rotors. I felt we were too high to continue a blind approach to the ground safely. I wasn’t sure if my co-pilot planned to continue the approach to the ground because our descent rate had almost stopped and we were only kicking up more dust with no visual cues of drift. So I pulled up on the collective and said, "Let’s go around." About the same time he started climbing. My ICS (intercom system) was starting to cut in and out. So now I was having trouble communicating to the crew and to other aircraft.

I took the controls and said, "I’ll try the next landing." We circled right and I made an approach a little less steep and a little more aggressively to a narrow paved strip behind Chalk one. They had already landed and shut down. The dust enveloped us again, but not until I was about 10 feet from the ground with a little forward speed and I knew it was level ground beneath us. I braked to stop the aircraft and after a few minutes the dust cleared. I said, "Let’s hurry and shut this aircraft down and get out before the next aircraft lands behind us and runs into us."

We quickly shut down and got out. Now we watched as almost every other aircraft approached and went through the same routine of a go around as we did. Every time one approached I would get behind cover just in case they crash landed. It was that bad. I was expecting at least one aircraft would crash. Then the CH-47 Chinooks started arriving. I was expecting it to be worse, but I was shocked at the amount of sand and dust they kicked up. They came to a 30 foot hover and disappeared in flying debris as they slowly descended to the ground. Their dust storm quickly covered the entire (LZ) where 17 aircraft planned to land.

The Chinooks have an autopilot to help them descend without drift. But I still saw a couple of them do go arounds. Finally the show was over and I was amazed that everyone made it down safely. We were on the ground about an hour and a half as the final Intel was reviewed and the infantry commander said the mission was still a go. Now the real mission would begin. I wasn’t looking forward to landing in an unknown, unimproved, confined LZ after a Chinook especially after what I had just witnessed. I had landed at dusty LZs at night before in Desert Storm, but they were in the open desert not in a confined area. My crew chief said the troops in the rear were so nervous that they were having trouble using their seat belts. He said it was starting to make him a little nervous.

We cranked after the Chinooks and departed on time. Everyone was briefed to have only IR position lights on dim for the flight. They couldn’t be seen with the naked eye, but were visible with the NVGs. During our route to the LZ we had a Chinook cross in front of our formation on its way back for a second load of troops. I thought that was odd and a little dangerous. As we approached the LZ, I could see the dust cloud and one of the Chinooks ascending out. As we descended into the "L" shaped LZ my only landing option was to the right of chalk 2 with trees on three sides and chalk 2 to my left. Chalk 2 slowly hovered down and kicked up so much dust that I couldn’t see the ground and I was still 35 feet up on my approach. The billowing dust cloud was only getting bigger and worse, so I elected to go around to the right and let some dust clear. I announced the go around on the radio, but wondered if anyone heard me due to my ICS problem. I couldn’t see the ground in the LZ during the initial part of my approach because my IR search light wasn’t working.

I came around for my second attempt at landing. The first two aircraft had already departed. I decided to land further forward where chalk one landed because it didn’t appear to be as dusty. As I descended I began to see troops on the ground running through the LZ where I planned to land. I slowed my descent a little to give them some time to clear but didn’t want to come to a hover and get dusted out again. I finally saw a clear area and went for it. As I landed I could still see troops running to get out of the way and one troop at the front edge of the LZ was swinging a chem light with a string attached to it in a circle. I wasn’t sure if he was signaling me it was safe or unsafe to land.

We made it down safely and the troops jumped off. I was thinking, "God, now I have to go back to Normandy and land in that dust bowl again. Two landings down and two to go." I departed the LZ and searched for my formation. I couldn’t see them anywhere as I turned back toward Normandy. I was having trouble with my ICS and tried to communicate to my co-pilot to put the next waypoint in the GPS. I knew there were at least 15 other aircraft flying in the same proximity with only their position lights on IR dim. I could see dark aircraft flying all over the moonless sky. It looked like a WWII dogfight. I saw one aircraft flying parallel to my route and about 3 to 5 rotor disks to my left. I didn’t know which aircraft it was or which formation he was part of, but he was alone too. We were both free agents searching for our formation.

I accelerated to hurry back to Normandy and avoid flying on his wing. He finally saw me and turned slightly left to allow more clearance. I turned my position lights on IR bright and my IR anti-collision light on. With all these aircraft flying around and not knowing how many free agents there were out there, I wanted them to at least see me before they collided with me.

When we got back to Normandy we had to circle and wait in line as aircraft took turns doing NVG brown out landings. I didn’t see hardly any go arounds this time even though the conditions were the same. I guess we were either prepared for it this time, or lucky. I made the approach and landed as the dust enveloped me. When the dust cleared, I could see that now I was chalk five instead of three. At least I was back in my correct formation. Three landings complete and one to go. We loaded our troops and departed in trail position. I wasn’t looking forward to being the last aircraft to land in an LZ dusted out by four other aircraft in front of me with no IR search light and my ICS not working.

We approached the next LZ. It was bigger and room for five. I tried to get a look at the ground before descending and before it was dusted out by the others. The NVGs were working overtime trying to pick up any light and terrain detail from the dark LZ below. I picked out my spot. It looked like it was a plowed area with deep terraces and I was expecting a brown out prior to landing. As we got closer to the ground the aircraft in front of me did a go around when the dust enveloped him. I took my last good look at the terrain details about 20 – 25 feet above the ground before the dust covered my area and went for the landing.

I knew at least I didn’t have to worry about hitting the aircraft in front of me, because now he was gone. I watched my radar altimeter as it counted down the distance to the ground in feet and kept my attitude level. The tail hit the ground first, then the left main wheel. I lowered the collective and I knew there was a ditch to my right because the right main wasn’t down yet. I slowly lowered the collective until the right main just barely touched the ground and the aircraft was leaning slightly to the right. Our forward motion decelerated to a quick stop. I positioned the cyclic so I wouldn’t chop off the head of a troop exiting the left side. The troops jumped out quickly into the black night. The crew chief called, "All clear," and we lifted off in Chalk order.

Now I was Chalk four and we had finished our mission to insert the troops. We were now headed back to Warhorse for fuel. Four landings and we hadn’t crashed. As we waited our turn to refuel we chatted about the experience. My crew thanked me for getting them through the night safely. I thought, "I’m too old for this shit." The morning light was beginning to show over the horizon and we flipped up our goggles. Thank God for the light.