Reserve pilots continue flying Pakistani 'lifeline'
Chuck Prichard
December 20, 2005
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Army News Service, Dec. 20, 2005) – Logging hundreds of flying hours to remote Pakistani villages over the past two months, Army Reserve Chinook pilots have delivered hundreds of tons of supplies ranging from baby formula to roofing materials.
The Pakistani government calls this relief effort following October’s earthquake "Operation Lifeline." Co. B, 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment continues to provide a large percentage of the flights ferrying supplies into mountain villages and evacuating residents who are unable to withstand the austere conditions.
Unit slated for Afghanistan
Members of Company B, an Army Reserve unit from Olathe, Kan., had just arrived at their mobilization station in October to prepare for a deployment to Afghanistan when their mission was literally shaken up.
Instead of training up and heading into the Afghan war zone later, the unit's 200 Army Reserve Soldiers and 14 Chinook helicopters were sent almost immediately to the other side of the Safid Mountain range to help provide relief to the victims of a powerful earthquake that struck Pakistan in early October 2005.
The earthquake, registering 7.6 on the magnitude scale, struck the area on Oct. 8, 2005, killing 86,000 people, injuring 69,000 and leaving an estimated 4 million homeless.
Co. B arrived on the scene a couple of weeks later.
Chinooks moving mountains
"This mission was tailor made for us," said company commander Maj. Walter Bradley. "The roads are impassable. The only way to move anything is by aircraft. And our Chinooks are the aircraft best suited for these conditions.
"It is difficult to find words to adequately describe the destruction," Bradley said. "We go some places that don't look too bad. But there are some villages that don't have a single building left standing. It is absolutely incredible. Yet, these people have the resolve to pick up the pieces and move on with their lives.
"Every mission that we fly is at max weight and max capacity. If you can name it, we have probably hauled it," Bradley said before rattling off a list of supplies his aircraft have carried. "Baby formula. Tents. Roofing materials. Medical supplies. Flour. Grain. Construction materials. The list goes on and on. We have hauled hundreds of tons of cargo and it shows no signs of letting up."
No rest for crews
There are no days off for his crews, Bradley said.
“ We have to keep flying because there is still a critical need for everything,” he said. “Our maintenance crews are doing a fantastic job of keeping us in the air.”
While it might seem boring to haul an endless stream of supplies, Bradley begs to differ. He classifies each mission as an adventure.
"The conditions are constantly changing. We have flown into a village in the morning and had a hard time landing because of the brown out from the dust. Then, when we went back to the same village in the afternoon, we had to contend with white-out conditions because of snow," he said.
Mountain flying requires skill, training
The mountain elevations also call for skill flying, Bradley said. "Our ceiling is 14,000 feet. We can't fly above that altitude without oxygen. Many of our missions are just below or right at that threshold."
Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly, Chief of the Army Reserve, characterized this as "one of the tough and demanding missions that the Army Reserve increasingly has to be prepared to do."
Given the abrupt mission change and rapid deployment following mobilization, he said Company B Soldiers adapted well to the situation.
"The real key was training under demanding conditions prior to mobilization," Helmly said.
No end in sight
It is unclear how long the unit will be involved with the relief effort or whether it will eventually be sent to its original mission in Afghanistan, Bradley said.
"We'll see how that plays out,” Bradley said. “But, for right now, we have a robust mission and are loving every minute of it," Bradley said.
"I don't think any other mission could be this rewarding for us. We have large American flags painted on both sides of all of our Chinooks,” Bradley said. “When we land in these villages the people point to the flags and let us know how grateful they are that we have come to help,"
(Editor's note: Chuck Prichard is a journalist for the Army Reserve.)
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