FALLEN ANGEL

[Chrome Missiles]

Behind Every courageous Airman is team. - Determined, Driven and Committed to succeed.​

We've got a motto for a reason: these things we do that others may live."

Technical Sergeant James Davis said somewhat casually, just days after risking his life to save two Army helicopter pilots from an unforgiving valley in Afghanistan.

Along with his crew, Sergeant Davis makes up an elite group of Airmen who serve as Combat Search and Rescue Aircrews – the professionals who go in with helicopters, hoists, and guns, putting their lives on the line to save others in hostile situations. He deployed to Afghanistan as an HH-60 Pave Hawk flight engineer, manning a 50-caliber machine gun and operating the hoist on the helicopter.

On April 23, 2011, Sergeant Davis would be part of a harrowing rescue mission that would test the courage, endurance and limits of all involved.

The situation began prior to daybreak, when Bagram Airfield's operations center received a report of a Fallen Angel – a term signifying a downed aircraft. Within 10 minutes, Pedro 83 and 84, two HH-60 Pave Hawk aircraft, were airborne and en route to the site. Once on-scene they linked up with other aircraft in the area: USAF F-15E Strike Eagle fighters, US Army AH-64 Apache helicopters, and OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters.

The Apaches used a laser to point out the location of one of the pilots. "At this time, we had thought that the pilots were collocated, and that they'd egressed (escaped) together from the aircraft," said Captain Louis Nolting, the Pedro 84 co-pilot.

But they hadn't. One of the pilots had climbed several hundred feet up a mountainous ridgeline above the crash; the other was reported to still be at the site – unconscious.

Pedro 83 dropped its pararescuemen (PJ) team down to the pilot on the ridgeline and Pedro 84 inserted its team near the wreckage to help the other. The steep terrain forced the Pedro 84 PJ team down a harrowing 180-foot hoist-assisted descent to get to the site. Unfortunately, upon arrival, they discovered the second pilot had died from his wounds.

After recovering the pilots, the PJ teams prepared for immediate extraction. But a difficult situation was about to get worse.

Overhead, Sergeant Davis, onboard Pedro 84, retrieved the hoist cable and was moving back into position when the rescue team began to take fire.

"Not more than two seconds after forward momentum was executed ... pop shots," said Staff Sergeant William Gonzalez, Pedro 84 gunner. "The first thing we start doing is checking to see where it's coming from and checking everybody out. And, maybe five seconds later the (flight engineer) says, 'I'm hit.'".

A round had come right through the side of the helicopter hitting Sergeant Davis in the leg. "They asked, 'Are you all right, Jim?' and I said, 'No I'm bleeding pretty good here,'" Sergeant Davis remembered.

"I looked back, and the first thing I saw was a pool of blood by his seat," Sergeant Gonzalez said. "I went over to assess his situation. He was still conscious. He was still breathing. I put his tourniquet right above the wound. [Then] I went over to the PJ's medical kit and grabbed some gauze, and I wrapped it around the leg to absorb as much blood as I could.".

Sergeant Davis needed medical attention and fast. Pedro 84 had no choice; they had to return to base. With Pedro 83 and the other aircraft remaining at the crash site, they headed back at maximum speed, leaving their PJ team of Staff Sergeant Zachary Kline and Staff Sergeant Bill Cenna on the ground with the fallen pilot.

Technical Sergeant Heath Culbertson awoke to frantic knocking on his door. He was in crew rest status, sleeping at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.

"They said, 'Get up, we need you in the TOC (Terminal Operations Center) now,'" Sergeant Culbertson said. "I asked, 'What's going on?' and they said, 'Davis has been shot.'"

He sprang to action, but the reality of the situation did not hit him until he got to the aircraft. "As soon as I got underneath the rotor, I saw the blood," he remembered. "It was pretty surreal. I'd seen blood before in the cabin, but never from any of our own guys. That was pretty shocking to me."

The crew swap took less than four minutes. Sergeant Culbertson and the rest of the Pedro 84 crew raced back to the crash site.

Back on the ridge above the crash site, the second PJ team, Major Jesse Peterson and Technical Sergeants Chris Uriate and Shane Hargis, treated the injured pilot and prepared for extraction. Major Peterson, the team commander, coordinated with Pedro 83 for pick-up and passed information about the situation on the ground. The pilot was stable, but the clock was ticking and enemy fighters swarmed just below the ridgeline. Overhead, Pedro 83 swept the area, searching for the enemy.

"As we came around, I saw rounds come up so I returned fire," said Senior Airman Justin Tite, Pedro 83's door gunner. "There were no other trees on the slope except this one huge tree right in the middle between the two teams, and that's where they were hiding."

The two PJ teams' positions were split by the enemy in the middle. There would be no link-up before extraction.

As enemy fire intensified, Pedro 83's pilot, Captain Joshua Hallada, decided they needed to get the PJ team and the pilot off the ground as soon as possible. "We set ourselves up to come in for a hover. Being that it [the helicopter] was a little lighter now, we brought it 20-feet over our team and the survivor," he said.

Quickly they lowered the hoist, but as the PJs and the flight engineer worked to get the survivor into the aircraft, enemy fire errupted.

A hot landing zone was getting hotter.

"The team started to hook up the survivor and that's when the pilot started to call rounds off the one o'clock," said Senior Airman Michael Price, the Pedro 83 flight engineer. Airman Price had a tough decision to make.

"I sheared the cable to stop from dragging them through the rocks," he said.

Airman Price used the guillotine-type device built into the hoist to cut the cable. It was a tough call to make, but his actions prevented further injury to the Airmen below.

Down below, Sergeant Hargis, a PJ team member, was strapped into the hoist with the surviving pilot. "I gave them the signal to bring up the cable, and I noticed a little more slack coming out. I thought maybe he didn't see me so I gave him the signal again and the next thing I know, the cable's sheared," he said.

With Pedro 84 off-station, a sheared hoist, and enemy fire increasing, the situation was deteriorating. Captain Hallada acted fast. Using a one-wheel hover, he positioned the helicopter beside the ridgeline, allowing the PJs and downed pilot to jump on. In just 10 seconds everyone was on board and they took off, but it wasn't fast enough.

"We went back into our overwatch patterns, realizing we'd been hit," Captain Hallada said.

The helicopter was struck by enemy fire. Damaged, running low on fuel and without a hoist, Pedro 83 was in a perilous situation. However, they decided to remain on the scene to provide cover to the second PJ team and pilot still on the ground. After several harrowing moments, they heard that Pedro 84 was on its way back, and they immediately left to refuel and rearm.

Once on the ground at Bagram, the PJs transferred the injured pilot to the field surgical team while Airman Price looked over the aircraft to evaluate the damage. Upon first glance, it appeared minimal. Then he checked the main transmission fluid – bone-dry, yet the Pave Hawk had brought them all back safely. The aircraft would not fly again that day.

The crew needed to find a spare aircraft and fast. In a whirlwind coordination effort, they secured another helicopter at a separate base and brought it back to rejoin the fight.

Back on scene at the crash, Pedro 84 arrived to find close air support had joined the fight. Four USAF A-10 Warthogs circled overhead and three Army AH-64 Apaches were firing at enemy forces. However, the insurgents would not relinquish the fight.

Pedro 84 made an attempt to extract the PJs and fallen pilot. They teamed with an Army Apache helicopter and moved to the landing zone. While guiding the pilots down for landing, Sergeant Culbertson began to hear what he thought may be gunfire. "I heard whistling by my head," he said. "But, I thought to myself, 'That can't be. I've got my helmet on. There's no way I'm hearing the hisses.'"

Seconds later, Sergeant Culbertson heard impacts on the aircraft and realized they were indeed under enemy fire. He began searching for the source. "Next thing I know, I get thrown on my console," he said. "I still didn't know what was going on at that point. But from this vantage point, I could see under my gun, and I could see the muzzle flashes. I remember shaking my head to clear it, and then just a rage of fury came over me. I called for the go around, turned the gun power switch on, and just started unleashing the .50-cal on these two points of origin," he said.

Later, Sergeant Culbertson would learn a bullet had entered the right side of his helmet, through his visor and exited the other side of the helmet without injuring him.

Though it seemed like slow motion, it all took place in about four seconds. Captain Nolting credits Sergeant Culbertson's quick and collected response to saving the aircraft. "Without him returning that fire, there was a chance that our right engine or hydraulics could have been shot out," he said.

With plenty of air support on scene to protect the team on the ground, Pedro 84 once again returned to base to refuel. On the ground they looked over the damage to their aircraft. Then they realized that not only had Sergeant Culbertson been hit, but so had Sergeant Gonzalez.

"I initially counted seven rounds that had impacted the cabin," Sergeant Gonzalez said. "And then, I noticed the one that was under my seat. It had come from under my seat and fragged outward. One piece missed my right knee, and the other actually bounced off my knee and went through my knee pad."

But neither injury nor damage would keep the Pedro 84 crew away. The helicopter was still airworthy and the crew prepped to return to battle.

Back at the crash site, Sergeants Kline and Cessna hunkered down by the wreckage waiting for the Pave Hawks to return. In time they started taking enemy fire. The aircraft above provided cover, but the PJs knew they had to find an escape route. A ravine 25 meters away was their only out.

Increasingly hostile fire made the decision for them.

"It felt like 30 rounds were all around us all within a two- to four-second period. They just hit everywhere," Sergeant Kline said. "They hit the aircraft, and it went up in flames. It quickly overtook the aircraft, and I yelled at (Sergeant Cenna) to get the hell out of there. I had noticed during my initial scan of the aircraft that there was still a rocket pod with rockets in it. That was my concern; that it was going to be like the Fourth of July."

As predicted, moments later the crashed helicopter exploded. The PJs sprinted to the ravine as enemy gunfire erupted around them. On the radio, aircraft overhead provided updates about the enemy who was quickly closing in on their position.

"They were like, 'There are these guys 300 meters to the north of you; we're going to go hot on them.' We could feel the concussion from the rockets," remembered Sergeant Kline.

Pedro 83 had returned to Bagram Air Field and together again with Pedro 84, the crews left to recover their PJs and the fallen pilot. Upon returning to the scene, the crews were alerted to another soldier in need of medical attention. While they were off-site, an Army quick reaction force had arrived on the scene to help, only to suffer casualties before landing.

An RPG explosion hit one member of the QRF, who died within minutes of the call. Another soldier had been hit and required immediate medical attention.

Two Apaches joined the Pedro Pave Hawks, creating a four-ship rescue formation. The helos moved towards the medical evacuation landing zone. Yet the number of enemies on the ground and firepower they wielded proved almost impossible to overcome.

During the first attempt to land, Pedro 84 began descending into the ravine as the other three aircraft provided cover.

"As we got down to about 30 feet, Sergeant Gonzalez and I starting seeing muzzle flashes from this one building 200 to 300 feet from us," Captain Louis Nolting, Pedro 84's pilot, described.

The gunfire forced a go-around. Captain Nolting worked to get the aircraft out of the valley, while the flight engineer and PJs onboard engaged targets in the building. Barely skimming over wires strung along the valley, the captain flew Pedro 84 out the zone. They formed back up for another pass.

In the meantime, Pedro 83 moved in to attempt an extraction.

"As we were about to set down, we were engaged, and all of the aircraft returned fire, including the Apaches," Captain Hallada said. Extraction would not be possible.

"As we took off, I immediately saw the wires out the windscreen, and I pulled everything the rotor system had to get over them," Captain Hallada said.

Finally, after a third unsuccessful attempt, the crews succeeded with the help of a heavily-armed Apache on the fourth try. Pedro 83 extracted the injured soldier. They also saw a golden opportunity to get their PJs.

In all the chaos, Pedro 84's hoist had broken. There was still a chance it would work in backup mode. It would run very slowly, but it was the only option.

"I said a little prayer," said Sergeant Culbertson, on Pedro 84, as he lowered the cable. "And it worked."

Even though the PJ team had been on the ground for more than five hours, they chose to ensure the fallen pilot made it home. The PJs strapped the pilot to the hoist first without hesitation. For Sergeant Kline, the decision was easy.

"We were going to do everything in our power to get him back," he said. "If I had to clip in and hold him, I would have. There was no way he wasn't coming back."

Slowly the cable crept back up towards Sergeant Culbertson in the helicopter above. After what seemed like an eternity, their fallen comrade was on board.

"By this time, I was expecting for us to get shot down," Captain Nolting said. "We'd been there so long. I truly expected we were going down." But for the first time that day, the aircraft did not take any fire, and Pedro 84 extracted the remaining PJs and evacuated the area.

No one was left behind.

Despite all the setbacks, the rescue team had accomplished what they set out to do in the morning – bring the downed pilots back.

Prior to departing to be treated at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, Sergeant Davis reflected on the mission that day and expressed his pride in the actions of the crews of Pedro 83 and Pedro 84.

"We did what we do," Sergeant Davis said. "We've got a motto for a reason: these things we do that others may live."