Photo By Sgt. Maj. Nathan Hoskins | Spc. Aaron Sims native of Suffolk, Va., left, Corpus Christi, Texas, native Spc....... read more read more
Subscribe
By Spc. Nathan Hoskins
1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs
CAMP TAJI, Iraq – Sweat is pouring down their faces. No one dares move an inch. Other Soldiers watch in complete silence ... and this was just the awards ceremony.
Three 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division Soldiers were awarded the Army Commendation Medal with "V" device for valor Aug. 3 for removing a smoking rocket pod from a battle-damaged Apache helicopter March 10.
Corpus Christi, Texas, native Spc. Benjamin Davila Jr., Hesperia, Calif., native Spc. Joseph Baker, and Suffolk, Va., native Aaron Sims, all armament technicians from Company D "Bone Crushers," 1st "Attack" Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, took action to save an aircraft and the lives of Soldiers that fateful day in March.
The three Soldiers, who refer to each other as brothers, were walking to work that morning when they noticed that there was no one in the hangers. Then, a fire truck came rushing to the scene, said Davila.
What the three didn't know was earlier that morning some Apaches from 1st Attack came under heavy enemy fire and sustained damage to their aircraft, said Fayetteville, Ga., native Capt. Patrick Baker, the commander of Co. D.
One Apache came in with one pilot injured, one rocket pod smoking and without the other rocket pod because they had to jettison it. They called ahead to the airfield to have the fire department standing by, he said.
That smoking rocket pod would be what made the fire department clear everyone out to at least 100 meter distance. The smoking pod still had rockets inside it, said Joseph Baker.
After the fire department found that the aircraft was not on fire, they left the dirty work to the three Soldiers who knew they could do the job right, said Davila.
"Once we got cleared from the fire department to come up, there was still a smoking rocket pod and that needed to be downloaded (removed) because it's unexploded ordnance," he said.
With the potential for the rockets inside the pod to explode, Davila, Baker and Sims donned their body armor and headed out to do their job to remove the munitions from the helicopter and get them out of the area, said Davila.
After assessing the situation, they found that the rocket pod had been shot. That damage caused one of the rockets to fire, but it didn't leave the tub, instead it burned off inside, leaving it and another rocket welded to the pod, said Sims.
With these damaged rockets now in a delicate state, they had to be careful about getting the pod off the aircraft and into the now waiting explosive ordnance disposal vehicle about 50 meters away, said Sims.
The unexploded ordnance in the pod was a 'point detonating round', a highly explosive round that could cause fatal injury to those around it and could cause major damage to the aircraft, said Patrick Baker.
As they worked on the aircraft, they didn't think about the dangers involved. Instead, they focused on preventing the rockets from causing injury to personnel or damage to the aircraft, said Davila.
"You don't think about it when you're doing it, but when we were actually removing the rocket pod, someone had to stand behind the pod and someone had to stand in front of it – so we were both in danger," he said.
Yet, it wasn't until a little bit later, while they were carrying the pod to the explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) vehicle, that they realized the mortal danger they had put themselves in, said Davila.
"When we did it we looked at each other in the eyes – we weren't thinking about (the dangers) until halfway to the EOD truck," Davila said.
"Those guys knew they had to get the munitions out or they could cook off and destroy the aircraft," said their commander. "They didn't wait for EOD, they put their (body armor) on and they went out there and unloaded that (rocket pod). It took some guts."
The "Bone Crushers" commander was glad his Soldiers got recognized for what they did. He understands the dire situation in which they put themselves to save the aircraft and potentially others' lives, he said.
"A lot of times (Soldiers) who don't leave the wire don't get recognition for valorous efforts because, honestly, it's few and far between," he said.
Because of the actions of the "three amigos," as Baker calls them, no one was hurt, nor was there further damage inflicted on the aircraft, he said.
Although they put themselves in harm's way, they did it for all the right reasons, says Davila, who, with this medal, earned his first ever award.
"I don't think any of us did it for a medal. We just knew there had to be something done because there were rockets on that aircraft smoking – we knew we had to get them down," he said.
"It might not be a big deal to a lot of people, but it sure was a big deal to the whole aviation side that was on that pad that day because nobody could work until it was cleared," said Davila.
Because the aircraft that these Soldiers help put in the skies are so critical to the ground troops, they knew precious time was slipping away as that pod sat on the airfield, he said.
"Nobody could assess that aircraft and see what kind of damage was done so that we (could) fix it and get it back into the air and back into the fight," said Davila. "That's how we contribute to the ground troops is getting the (Apaches) back into the fight."
Their commander was very pleased with their actions that day and will never forget them, he said.
"They are like some kind of super Soldiers. They'll go out in 125-degree heat, turn around an aircraft in 30 minutes to get it back out into the fight," Baker said. "Twenty years from now, I'll be able to specifically look back and tell you detailed things about those three Soldiers."
| Date Taken: | 08.06.2007 |
| Date Posted: | 08.06.2007 09:44 |
| Story ID: | 11646 |
| Location: | TAJI, IQ |
| Web Views: | 1,559 |
| Downloads: | 351 |
This work, Air Cavalry 'Rocket Men' Honored for Valor, by SGM Nathan Hoskins, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
