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By Root 1442 0

Korangal Valley. Their ears popping from the altitude, the Dustoff pilots slowed their craft’s forward progress as they quickly approached the high terrain of the upper Shuryek. Henninger, noticing that the four aircraft were literally boxed in by the valley, maneuvered his Blackhawk to allow the lead Apache a quick escape route should the Shock pilots run out of air on their climb over the ridge. With their Blackhawks at max climb and max power, and a wall of Hindu Kush dominating their forward view, the lead Apache radioed back, “We need to back off. We’re not gonna make it over.” The skilled pilots worked their craft to draw every ounce of lift power out of their engines and rotors. Henninger, looking to his left and right, however, quickly realized that they’d flown into such constricted terrain that to turn around they’d have to carve steep banks in the air, and as they approached the mountain, the amount of vertical airspace between the helicopters and Sawtalo Sar shrank. And since helicopters require increased power to maintain elevation during a bank—and the Blackhawks and Apaches already were running at maximum power—their only choice was to press on as the dark mountain drew ever larger and more menacing in their field of view. Turning with no more power to add literally meant falling from the sky, “knifing down” onto Sawtalo Sar.

Flying at only sixty-five knots of airspeed, and with about one thousand vertical feet to go to surmount the north ridge, Henninger heard the last sound he wanted to hear through his headset—a warning alarm, signaling him to check the bird’s diagnostics. The helicopter’s master caution light and his number-two engine “chip light” flickered on, meaning that sensors had detected metal chips in the turbofan’s oil, which could possibly shut the engine down and send the Dustoff crashing onto the mountain below. Unable to turn, Henninger gazed at the lead Apache as it approached the crest of the north ridge—then disappeared. Buffeted by strong thermals spinning off the steep ground below, the aviators could make out details in individual branches of high cedar—virtually at their eyes’ level. At the very crest of the north ridge, with less than fifty feet to spare, the Dustoff pilots pitched the noses of their Blackhawks up and they passed under Sawtalo Sar’s summit, then torqued the craft down like a roller coaster, into the Korangal—regaining airspeed and visual on the Apaches.

Letting out a huge sigh of relief, Henninger could hear Rashman talking to the Apaches about the LZ. The Shocks had pushed ahead, in order to scout the area for any RPG-wielding bad guys. When Henninger approached the tiny, sloping landing zone, marked by a purple smoke grenade, he thought for sure that it would be a hoist mission, where they’d drop a litter on a winch. But closer still, he and the aircraft’s crew dogs realized that they had just enough space to nestle the craft onto the ground. Henninger circled the craft and hovered high above the slope, with the helicopter’s nose facing the Korangal Valley. Constantly monitoring the aircraft’s systems, particularly that chip light, Henninger began the slow descent. As a group of Echo-3 Marines hauled Pigman on a tarp toward the inbound bird, the Dustoff crew poked their heads out the side doors of the Blackhawk and called out distances while Henninger—who’d never undertaken a closed-confines landing before—placed the tail of the craft between two small trees, just eight feet apart. With the bird’s gear on the ground, the crew chief casually stepped onto Sawtalo Sar as the Marines, carrying Pigman, stormed toward the craft. But the helicopter barely sat on the ground—Henninger couldn’t completely let off the collective, which controls the pitch of the rotor blades, as he had to keep the rotor tips from drooping and striking surrounding trees. With their heads hung low to avoid running into the rotors, the grunts loaded Pigman, now doped up on morphine, into the Dustoff. Roy, although not seriously injured, was also ordered to get on the medevac so that a doctor