101st Combat Aviation Brigade Public Affairs

Story by Sgt. George Welcome

By Spc. George Welcome
101st Combat Aviation Brigade

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - Most people don't get the chance to do the thing they love most for a living. When Chief Warrant Officer 5 Wayne Price says that he loves flying for a living, there isn't any doubt that he means it.

Price serves as the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade's UH-60 standardization instructor pilot, and as Brig. Gen. James McConville's (Combined Joint Task Force-101's Deputy Commanding General-Support) pilot. His path to becoming a pilot was slightly different than that of most of the Soldiers who get to sit behind flight controls. A native of Clarksville, Tenn., Price learned he could become a pilot while he was a student at Austin Peay State University.

"I was very fortunate because I had a friend who was already a pilot. I got to know him when I was in college," Price explained. "He told me about the warrant officer flight training program and was fortunate enough that his old first sergeant was my recruiter, so I didn't get the run around like a lot of guys do."

After completing Basic combat Training and Warrant Officer Candidate School he attended flight school at Fort Rucker, Ala. in 1987. In addition to his three combat deployments in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, Price has had year-long assignments to Korea and Honduras. He was also part of a landslide relief effort in Venezuela. Of all the places he has flown, he says that Afghanistan is by far the most challenging.

"As far as flying goes, nothing compares to this," he said. "Everything else everyone has done up until now was basically their high school and college flying; flying here in Afghanistan is definitely graduate level flying. This is some of the most demanding terrain you're ever going to see. The brigade did the best job it could to get everybody prepared for this."

In addition to his duties as one of the senior pilots in the brigade, he also takes pride in being able to offer professional and practical advice to junior pilots.

"I always try to be a good counselor for the guys in their careers and point them down the right career path. I also try to instill upon them flying techniques when they are flying with me; mainly things like power management and staying ahead of the aircraft."

Price says that while flying here is really challenging due to the weather and terrain, he enjoys getting to work with so many talented young pilots.

"The best thing about the job is the flying," said Price. "These are some of the most phenomenal young pilots that I have ever been around. They are so far ahead of where I was when I was a young CW2. They understand things about power management that we didn't worry too much about prior to Afghanistan. We didn't pay a lot of attention to power management for the Black Hawk in the old days because we thought we had all the power in the world. It's not something you had to worry about flying around Kentucky or down at Fort Rucker, but here it's an everyday issue; even Chinook guys have to worry about power in this country."

During the course of his career, Price has enjoyed a wide variety of assignments. He lists working for various commanders and his time as the standardization pilot for 5th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment as some of the highlights of his time in the Army."

"The Army has been absolutely fantastic," said Price. "I was going to retire, but I was offered CW5, I decided to stick around because I love what I do and I love being around the people."

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