David Pliego, UH-60 Blackhawk crew chief, 4th Bn., 160th SOAR, as he struggled to swim 30 meters in his flight gear and treaded water for what seemed like hours - only to be told his. However, one Delta Force operator succumbed to his wounds. MOS 15U MH-47 Special Operations Crew Chief is featured in this episode of Service in the 160th: My Life in Special Operations Aviation. He remained in 1st Battalion, 160th SOAR (A) as an MH-60M Crew Chief. Requirements vary within each of the five units, but can include things like qualifying for a security clearance or having an ASVAB placement test score above 100. An AC-130 Spectre joined the battle and kept the down crew and passengers safe until a British Immediate Response Team helicopter recovered them. The back of the aircraft contained the flag-draped coffins of 16 great Americans: the fallen Night Stalkers and SEALs from Turbine 33. Thunder boomed as lightning struck all around them. [citation needed], SOAR flight medics can qualify as special operations combat medics by completing the 36-week long Special Operations Combat Medic (SOCM) course at Fort Bragg.[6]. The best books do several things. Its unlikely any journalist could have told this story the way Burnett does. The 160th SOAR (A) consists of the Army's best-qualified aviators, Crew Chiefs and support soldiers. 160th soar Reply More posts from r/Helicopters. [30] On 9 September 2009 in Afghanistan, Night Stalkers inserted the British SBS and SFSG into Kunduz Province to rescue Times journalist Stephen Farrell after he and his Afghan interpreter were captured by the Taliban. [citation needed]) The unit was officially established on 16 October 1981, when it was designated as the 160th Aviation Battalion. The mission was to capture or kill Ahmad Shah, a Taliban commander. Tom Demerly is a feature writer, journalist, photographer and editorialist who has written articles that are published around the world on TheAviationist.com, TACAIRNET.com, Outside magazine, Business Insider, We Are The Mighty, The Dearborn Press & Guide, National Interest, Russias government media outlet Sputnik, and many other publications. He tells the tale from the perspective of the common man, the common soldier. The weather was turning bad again as they offloaded Marines to assist with security. Staff Sgt. Demerly studied journalism at Henry Ford College in Dearborn, Michigan. )[8] In the evening of 18 October into 19 October 2001, two SOAR MH-47E helicopters, escorted by MH-60L (Direct Action Penetrators) (DAPs), airlifted U.S. troops from the Karshi-Khanabad Air Base in Uzbekistan[9] more than 300 kilometers (190mi) across the 16,000-foot (4,900m) Hindu Kush mountains into Afghanistan. When you hear all four directions, everyone gets pretty tense, Brady said. They tell a well-paced, compelling story. Photo: Alan C. Mack, 160th SOAR. Also basic army question: if you're a single E5 do you get BAH to live off post? [20], On the evening of 13 December 2003, Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces in Operation Red Dawn, he was exfiltrated by a MH-6 Little Bird from the 160th SOAR and he was taken into custody at Baghdad International Airport.[21]. [36], On 15 January 2014, a MH-60M Black Hawk of the 160th performed a hard landing at Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia. The SEALs were successfully inserted onto the property while the crew was able to extract themselves, provide cover for the SEALs and then leave on the other helicopter. U.S. Army 160th SOAR has Aviation Jobs, Military Jobs, and Army Jobs. FORT CARSON, Colo. 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) operators prepare for final checks with CH-47 Chinook crew chiefs at Fort Carson Aug. 23-26, 2022. . One of Bradys soldiers in the operations center was asking him a question, but Brady was momentarily frozen with shock. It is a remarkably articulate and balanced accounting of a Nightstalkers career. Smith and the others in Turbine 34 watched helplessly as the Chinook full of their fellow aviators their friends crashed into the mountain and erupted in a ball of flames. Within a few weeks, the Northern Alliance, assisted by U.S. ground and air forces, captured several key cities from the Taliban. At midnight on 11 June 1988, two MH-47s flew 490 miles at night without outside navigational aids to the target location, the Ouadi Doum Airfield in northern Chad. This sub has completely lost it's sense of humor. Answer (1 of 8): Thanks for the oppt'y to answer your question, Luke! And finally, the plot ends with a twist that makes every page memorable. Arriving on site, the task force members fast-roped in. As the Night Stalkers flew back to Bagram, the JSOC ground force that had convoyed to the crash radioed to the task force that they had secured the site. The strike groups included one flight of MH-60L DAPs and four "Black Swarm" flights, each consisting of a pair of AH-6M Little Birds; a FLIR-equipped, target-spotting MH-6M; and a pair of U.S. Air Force A-10As. 160th SOAR MOS's: Pilot Co-Pilot Crew Chief Door Gunner 5th SFG MOS's Communications Sergeant Weapons Sergeant Intelligence Sergeant Medical Sergeant In the 160th SOAR, we utilize real military tactics and apply them to the ARMA game world. Pilot/copilot, crew chief and medic. The book was a start-stop project that Burnett spent four years writing and editing, then obtaining U.S. Department of Defense clearance to publish. They ascended and flew back to Jalalabad to link up with another group of SEALs and stand by as a quick-reaction force (QRF) in case the SR team was compromised. [18], Later 2002, in Afghanistan, Task Force 11 (previously known as Task Force Sword-renamed in January 2002) was composed of DEVGRU, and a company of Rangers, and was supported by a company of helicopters from the 160th SOAR. [27] Night Stalker helicopters were present during the 2008 SOCOM counter-terror exercises in Denver. As the Night Stalkers slept, the SR team was discovered by a numerically superior force of enemy fighters. With that, they retired to their rooms to rest for phase two of the operation the following night. Northern Edge 21, the premier bi-annual joint exercise of the [], The famous Stealth Black Hawk helicopter revealed by the Osama Bin Laden raid is one of the hot topics of this blog. Brady knew that surveillance aircraft going off station without backup was supposed to result in aborting the mission. Life in the 160th I have spoken to AD and 160th recruiters Background: Army NG Crew chief (15T) E4, been in about 4 years but still have very limited maintenance experience and just recently RL1 crew chief. Night Stalkers from 1st Battalion 160th SOAR were tasked with supporting Task Force 20 with its MH-60M Black Hawks, MH-60L DAPs, MH-6M transport and AH-6M Little Birds; they were based at Ar'Ar. How do deployments work? He told Reich pushing the mission back would allow Shah to continue his terrorist activities, likely leading to the death of locals and US military in the area. [19], During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, 3rd Battalion, 160th SOAR, deployed as the Joint Special Operations Air Detachment-West under CJSOTF-West (Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-West/Task Force Dagger). 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), the Nightstalkers. . I saw this first hand as an H-60 Search & Rescue Swimmer Crew Chief (AW . Walking toward the flight line, the SEAL commander quipped, What made you want to fly such ugly helicopters?, Theyre not much to look at, but they get the job done, Brady fired back. The most prevalent model is the special operations-modified Sikorsky MH-60 Blackhawk. In March 2006, SEALs from DEVGRU and Rangers were flown by the 160th SOAR into in North Waziristan, Pakistan, to assault an al-Qaeda training camp, allegedly under the codename: Operation Vigilant Harvest, the assaulters killed as many as 30 terrorists including the camps commandant. There were 100-foot-tall trees on all sides of the Chinook, and they were so close the pilots had no room to sway as they descended. The dramatic nighttime raid was "painstakingly recreated" in the film Zero Dark Thirty,[35] which covers the CIA's efforts to track down bin Laden, from just after the September 11th attacks to the daring raid ten years later. Sgt. Making The Cut He was a graduate of several Army courses including Enlisted Combat Skills, Combatives Level I, MH-60 Maintainers Course, Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE), MH-60 Non-Rated Crew Member Course . ", This date in ARSOA history: OPERATION MOUNT HOPE, U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command Facebook page, dated 11 June 2014, last accessed 9 June 2019, "Task Force DaggerOperation Enduring Freedom", "The Campaign PlanSpecial Operations Forces and Operation Enduring Freedom", "HONORING THE U.S. ARMY HEROES OF OPERATION RED WINGS", "Operation Enduring FreedomCaribbean, Central America (OEF-CCA)", "160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR)", "Special ops aviation company deactivated", "PRESS RELEASE: Four Special Operations Aviation Soldiers die in helicopter crash in Colorado", "Stealth chopper secrets may have been exposed", "PRESS RELEASE: Special Operations Aviation Soldier dies in helicopter training accident", "One killed in US 'Night Stalkers' hard landing", "2 Fort Campbell soldiers receive Distinguished Flying Cross", "Black Hawk helicopter that crashed off Yemen belonged to elite Special Operations air unit", "Pentagon identifies US service member killed in Afghanistan copter crash", "Special operations aviator killed in Iraq helicopter crash identified", "Special ops troops 'hunkered down' in California airport hangar after nighttime ninja attack", United States Army Center of Military History, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (United States), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=160th_Special_Operations_Aviation_Regiment_(Airborne)&oldid=1147084789, "Night Stalkers", "160th SOAR (A)", "Task Force Brown", "Night Stalkers don't quit! Pursuing a career in Army Aviation opens you up to an exciting array of many different specialties. The 160th SOAR is the unit that flew the special MH-X Stealth Black Hawk helicopters and MH-47G (or classified variant) Chinook during Operation Neptunes Spear, the raid to capture Osama bin Laden. After the 1980 Operation Eagle Claw attempt to rescue American hostages held in Tehran, Iran, failed, President Jimmy Carter ordered former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James L. Holloway III to figure out how the U.S. military could best mount another attempt. The Night Stalkers flew back to their newly forged landing zone the following night. Through detailed explanation of the Nightstalkers mission, training and daily operations along with the unique culture of the secretive organization, Burnett takes you inside the unit, the training, the culture and the daily operations. Matt Bradys MH-47 Chinook helicopter on Bagram Air Base. 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