CHIEF WARRANT OFFICER 3 WILLIAM H. MURRAY
12th Aviation Battalion, Davison Army Airfield
Fort Belvoir, Virginia

It was May 16, 2006 — a day in Iraq I’ll never forget. I was the pilot in command in the lead aircraft on the downed aircraft recovery team. The day started out as a normal standby day. We pre-flighted the aircraft, and afterward I conducted a thorough crew brief.

Following my brief, I returned to my room to catch a movie. A few hours later, I got a knock on my door and was told we had a mission and to report to the tactical operation center. My pilot for the mission was my roommate, so I didn’t have to go far to instruct him to find the crew chiefs and meet me at the TOC.

I met the PC of the second aircraft at the TOC and reported to the battle captain to discuss the details of our mission. He told us an aircraft was down in Q-West due to tail rotor problems. After our PIs entered the TOC, we got our S-2 brief, maps and route of flight. We then sent our PIs to assemble the DART team and had them meet us at the aircraft. Both flight crews checked the weather and exchanged information for the flight to Q-West.

At the aircraft, I had another crew brief. I updated my crew and the DART team on mission details. We went over the weather, frequencies and route of flight. We then strapped in and took off as a flight of two. I was the lead aircraft to Q-West, and the flight went off without any issues.

After landing at Q-West, the maintenance test pilot examined the broken aircraft. The crew with the broken aircraft swapped aircraft with Chalk 2 of the flight and took off to continue their mission. The MTP diagnosed the problem and quickly fixed the aircraft. He then took a test flight around the traffic pattern. The test flight was successful and we continued as briefed.

In the meantime, my PI and I walked over to operations to check on weather and get approval from our TOC for the flight back. The weather report showed some thunderstorms to the south, and our battalion commander changed up the crews.

My crew consisted of a senior PI with more than 200 hours in Iraq; I had more than 600 hours in country. Chalk 2 consisted of a new lieutenant and an MTP who did not have a lot of time outside the traffic pattern of Forward Operating Base Speicher. It was a good crew change due to the situation we were about to face. The battalion commander directed I take Chalk 2 to keep an eye on the tail rotor of Chalk 1. We conducted another crew brief because of the crew change and, based on my having the most experience, I took the DART team and passengers.

The thunderstorms were approaching Q-West from the south quicker than expected, so we took off without delay. After we cleared Q-West airspace, the thunderstorm was over Q-West. We responded to Q-West tower and cleared their airspace. We soon noticed some thunderstorms developing on our route of flight. After having a brief discussion with Chalk 1, we agreed I would take the lead.

I passed Chalk 1 off the right side since I was on the controls in the left seat. We changed our route and crossed the Tigris River. The reason for the flight change was to give us a recovery base should the weather toward FOB Speicher go below visual flight rules minimums. After crossing one of the ridges, we noticed the weather toward Kirkuk had deteriorated, so we weren’t able to recover there as planned. We were being funneled in one direction and that was toward Speicher. After many talks with Chalk 2, we knew we had only one way to go.

We turned our aircraft toward Speicher. We were still on the north side of the Tigris, so we had one more ridge to cross. Just when I thought the weather couldn’t get any worse, dust storms appeared on our right and left. I saw our path narrowing. This was unbelievable! It was not a good situation.

I asked my crew chiefs if I was clear left. My left crew chief responded that I was not. I then asked if I was clear right. My right crew chief said I was not clear right. I was a little confused and asked them to clarify why I could not turn left or right. That’s when they informed me the dust storms had merged behind us.

I radioed Chalk 2 and asked if they had their instrument approach card to Speicher. They came back with a “yes.” I had hoped not to use it; nevertheless, we conducted the inadvertent instrument meteorological conditions brief over the radio. Both chalks knew the corresponding altitude and frequencies if the weather worsened.

Thinking ahead, I knew the air would be a concern when crossing over the other ridgeline. As we got closer to the ridgeline, I started to climb. I didn’t want to start too early because I didn’t want to go IIMC. As we got closer to the ridgeline, the downdraft got stronger. I was in a 5 to 7 degree nose-up attitude and pulling close to 100 percent torque. The dust storm quickly converged in front of us. Once we topped the ridge, I radioed Speicher tower about the weather. Speicher quickly came back with, “We were IMC, but now we’re VFR.” That was finally some good news.

The bad weather was unyielding and we slowed down to about 80 knots to keep the ground in sight. We continued the rest of the flight off of visual cues. A normally 45-minute flight had taken us well over an hour. I had my PI perform several fuel consumption checks because we needed to know exactly how much time we had.

Our aircrews carefully synchronized the next 30 minutes, using excellent aircrew coordination skills. After looking at the global positioning system, we realized we were approaching the 10-nautical-mile ring of Speicher. I radioed Speicher tower, reported my location and requested to land. We landed at our parking spot and my passengers quickly got out of the aircraft and kissed the ground. I heard a lot of thank-yous.

All of our training came to reality in one flight. The weather never got any better that day and I was doing all I could to keep my UH-60L in the air. We had lightning strikes all around us and we were tossed around like a rock in a soda can.

The crew coordination in my aircraft and with Chalk 2 was amazing and the key to completing the mission without incident. Both crews relied on their training. That training kept a bad situation from getting worse.

The moral of the story is keep your cool and rely on your training. You never know when it might one day save your life.