Spoken from the Front Read Free Page B

front-seat job.
Ultimately the Apache is an attack helicopter. The optics are
amazing – on a very clear day, at midday, you will be able to
break out a guy at about twelve Ks [kilometres], depending
on haze. A new sighting system is becoming operational at
the moment, which will greatly improve the night-time
capability.
    Ideally, you want to get target rounds on your first burst
from your 30mm, probably your initial weapon for a point
target. There is always going to be some slight error in the
gun of, say, ten to fifteen metres when you're firing from two
K in a moving aircraft. Flying straight at the target is more
accurate. You then want to be able to adjust straight away so
you're looking for perfect second rounds hit.
    Most of the time you fly as a pair [of Apaches] so you have
four pairs of eyes looking out – and you have mutual support
if you develop a fault or problem. The patrol commander will
be mission lead and he will do the majority of the radio work,
and your wing aircraft will be the lower aircraft. The higher
aircraft is going to get a better line-of-sight comms, leaving
the wing to focus more on the targeting. However, some
patrol commanders do it differently. Our main role is attack:
providing close-fire support for the ground troops. Our other
role is providing escort protection to other aircraft, which are
going in to the tastier [more dangerous] landing sites.
    I first went out to Afghanistan on 1 May 2006. We flew into
Kabul, over-nighted there, then went down to Kandahar.
Initially we operated out of Kandahar for the first month and
a bit – we used to deploy for the day and operate out of
[Camp] Bastion when it was a shell compared to what it is
now. So we were operating off a gravel pad – quite sporty
[challenging/dangerous] – and it was austere in comparison
to the runways and air-traffic control that we have now.
    Afghanistan was pretty desolate. You were never quite sure
what you were going into. There's a certain amount of
tension about anyone's first tour. I certainly had a few
questions as to why we were there. But you can console yourself
by thinking: My job is to be as good as I can be, to provide
the best support to whichever call sign needs us.
18 May 2006
    McNab: Our troops in Afghanistan received an early indication of
the scale of the Taliban resistance. More than a hundred people died
as Taliban fighters and Afghan forces clashed in the fiercest fighting
since Britain had arrived in the province. A wave of attacks left
some eighty-seven Taliban fighters and suicide bombers dead. The
battles also left about fifteen Afghan police, a Canadian soldier, an
American civilian and an Afghan civilian dead. Nine hours of fighting
had begun after reports that Taliban fighters had massed in
Musa Qa'leh a day earlier.
19 May 2006
    Flight Lieutenant Christopher 'Has' Hasler, DFC, RAC
    Flight Lieutenant Christopher 'Has' Hasler, DFC, is a Chinook helicopter
    pilot with the RAF. Aged twenty-nine, he is Canadian and was born in Jasper,
    a town in the Rockies. He was brought up in Nova Scotia and went to New Brunswick
    University to do a degree in international relations. However, he decided
    not to complete his course because he joined the RAF. Initially he questioned
    the value of his six-month training at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire, but he
    knuckled down and fulfilled his ambition to fly military helicopters. After
    a relatively quiet tour of Iraq, he served in the Falkland Islands, Northern
    Ireland and Europe. He arrived in Afghanistan, as a flying officer, in May
    2006 for a two-month tour. He has since been promoted to flight lieutenant
    and has done a further five tours to Afghanistan. Hasler, who is single, is
    based at RAF Odiham in Hampshire.
    The Chinook is essentially a troop-carrying helicopter, used
to drop off and collect troops [including injured soldiers]. It is
about 100 feet long, 20 feet tall, and it can fly at up to 160
knots. It is armed with two mini guns and