Civilian helicopter pilots have been the unsung heroes in helping to find survivors and deliver supplies after Hurricane Helene. In fact, for a while, they were ordered to get out of the airspace, even though the government wasn’t providing airlifted support yet. That controversy has been resolved, but a new one has taken its place.
I was talking to a helicopter pilot the other day who was regaling stories about piloting helos in combat. Indeed, Don Bentley, who has taken over writing the Vince Flynn spy thriller novels, was an Apache Helicopter pilot in Afghanistan. He was sent to find the survivors of Operation Redwings. Marcus Luttrell, you’ll recall, was the “Lone Survivor” of that op.
With the help of an Iowa Air National Guard Chinook helicopter, we successfully evacuated 34 elderly residents from Burnsville this evening. It was an absolute honor to assist these fellow Americans in their time of greatest need. A huge thank you to our first responders and… pic.twitter.com/m8YI5Nqfgs
— Pat Harrigan (@PatHarriganNC) October 2, 2024
I was talking to a helicopter pilot the other day who was regaling stories about piloting helos in combat. Indeed, Don Bentley, who has taken over writing the Vince Flynn spy thriller novels, was an Apache Helicopter pilot in Afghanistan. He was sent to find the survivors of Operation Redwings. Marcus Luttrell, you’ll recall, was the “Lone Survivor” of that op.
Helo pilots do more than just deliver “steel on target” as Bentley puts it in his first “Mitch Rapp” novel, “Capture or Kill.” They do more than deliver troops to a landing zone (LZ). These pilots can do all kinds of things; they control crowds and scare away bad guys. They can do this with rotor wash. They use it to do just that in one of the Flynn books, as a matter of fact. See the Adult in the Room Podcast conversation with Bentley below.
But you don’t do that to friendlies.
So when I saw images from the aftermath of the North Carolina victims of Hurricane Helena, I was shocked.
An unmarked Blackhawk helo hovered over a site where North Carolina relief workers were gathering life-saving supplies and bathed the site in rotor wash. Supplies went flying. Tents and popups, set up to protect the relief supplies from the elements, flew into the air like some homes went up in the storm. Reportedly, one person had to get medical attention after this display.
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— Read More: pjmedia.com
