Risk Management Magazine

We’ve all been there — that “will-I-make-it” moment. If you’re lucky enough to have avoided that experience, then you’ve heard it from the mouths of others — probably accompanied with a few nervous chuckles. For most, it’s the first time, and hopefully last, as well as a valuable learning point.

It was the last month of our deployment and things were pretty routine. My back-seater and I were sitting in our Apache on Mustang ramp in Kandahar, Afghanistan, preparing for an air assault. We were on the auxiliary power unit, ensuring all our systems were functioning, when something caught my eye.

It was February in Iraq, and we were returning from our final mission of the day. As we crossed the wire, we crew chiefs and gunners removed the ammo belts from our 240H machine guns and then let the weapons fall forward, muzzle down, prior to landing.