Thursday, April 8, 2010

Chopper (1-64)

Summary:

For this term's ROAR book, I chose "Chopper" by Robert F. Dorr. This is a book about this history of American Military Helicopter Operations. This book has a wide variety of mission, it has them ranging from World War 2 to the War on Terror.

"A Night Mission That Couldn't Happen":
Captain Richard Kirkland was a pilot of a H-5 Chopper. While he was partying, the phone rang. It was a lieutenant, and he said that he had a soldier, shot in the darkness. He was oing to die if he didn't get help before dawn. But this soon became a problem, a big problem. The H-5 Chopper could not be flown at night. it had to light, or navigation equipment to support it. Another reason why it couldn't fly at night was because it was against regulations.

But, to save a life, you must risk something. Going into enemy territory was dangerous-- especially at night without any lights. How did they get to the wounded solider, you ask? The wounded soldier was lucky, he had US Army troops around him and they flashed truck lights so the H-5 chopper knew where to land. As soon as it landed, Roger(the medic), bounced out and went to retrieve the wounded soldier. As soon as he was on board they took off. When they were just in the air, they heard, and saw "little red golf balls" coming towards them/ The Vietnamese were shooting at them. The H-5 was being shot, and the helicopter was struggling to leave the hostile situation. But for some reason, the enemy fire stopped. As soon as it stopped, they were back on there way home.

The wounded soldier lived.

Quote:
"Abruptly, they stopped shooting. I don't know why." (Dorr 46)

Reaction:
That had me wondering too. WHY, did they stop shooting. They has a perfect visual of where the helicopter was. The helicopter was making some lgiht from the exhaust. This way, it could move. But then again it wasn't made for night flying. It was especially dangerous when you're flying at night, not to mention if you have fire coming from the exhaust. But...why did they stop shooting. The world will never know..

1 comment:

  1. so Kirkland also flew the chopper after being at a party? That is one amazing story.

    ReplyDelete