Found some old pics. One of my best friends and hunting buddy was flying this aircraft on our 3rd deployment to Iraq, landed on an anti-tank mine. The medic was hanging out the left gunners window, caught shrapnel and got burned. He was the only injury. It blew the left landing gear about 400 meters from the aircraft, trashed all the blades and blew the windows out on the left side. The ballistic protection kit that were installed saved the rest of the crew from injury.

We were with the Marines out in Anbar, turned out they landed in a minefield. The Marines wanted to launch an F-18 and drop a 500 pounder on it. Our CO was not happy, we had lost an aircraft on that tour already and were still short a bird from a previous tour. The CH-53 squadron CO agreed to sling it out. Picture is of the bird after it was slung back to Al Asad and an inflight pic of the 53 getting ready to lift it.



Another bird from the previous tour, being slung out by a CH-47.


Some Blackhawks loaded in a C-5, headed to the sandbox.

That doesn't look like it buffed out! It's hard to believe they didn't have more injuries looking at it.

Thanks for your service and thanks for the pictures.

I hope that Medic was able to recover from his injuries, looks bad.

Thanks for posting, and Thank You!, for your service!

Mines in the LZ.....flashback city.

"A blast from the past." I see what you did there...

Glad there were no worse casualties than that with something the size of an AT mine.

Thanks for your service. Thanks for the fine pics. I especially like this one with the shadows stopped in motion.

Cool stuff, Hawk_Driver. Thanks for sharing.

Looks like a lot of damage, glad everyone made it through.

Do you know what kind of anti tank mine it was Dan?

The shadow of the load is cool

Not to diminish your thread, but the last pic of the hawk's in an airrplane is a C-17, not a C-5

Bad ass, Hawk.

Cool pics for sure, I'm sure you got more.

Don't hold out on us now.

Thanks all around!

To a rotorhead they all look pretty much alike. Big Ugly Fat Fuggers.

Gotta respect the medevac guys big time!

Thanks for sharing those!

Absolutely! I assume that big red cross on the side means no weapons on board?

The things some of you guys have done and been though just blows my mind. The things you and all have done for this country is amazing . I know lots have never made it home but glad you and the guys here did. Thanks for making that difference in our lives. Jere

To some, maybe, but to me, the C-17 is a luxurious per diem/ cash printing machine that has gotten me laid on 3 continents, taken me from 5 star hotel to 5 star hotel, and even a few nasty sandboxes with little brown people shooting at me.

I went from a UH-60 Crew Chief to a UH-60 pilot, to a C-17 Loadmaster. No chit, I'd take (I actually did) an E job as a C-17 Loadmaster over a CWO job flying the -60. The quality of life difference is quite remarkable.

After 700 hours in the -60 (and TH-67) and 3500 in the C-17, I truly learned to appreciate a flushing toilet and 110V outlets at my chair in the -17.

I'm very glad however that I had the Army RW experience, since it allowed me to appreciate the USAF -17 experience that much more.