U.S. helicopter shot down in Iraq

By RICH MAUER
Anchorage Daily News

Published: January 28, 2007
Last Modified: January 28, 2007 at 02:59 AM


BAGHDAD, Jan 28 — We just received a report from our correspondent in Najaf that a U.S. helicopter was shot down in a battle with Iraqi and foreign fighters in the town of al Zarga.


The correspondent observed the helicopter shot down about 1:35 p.m. Iraqi time Sunday (1:35 a.m. ADT) by rocket fire from the ground. It fell and was burning.

more:http://www.adn.com/front/story/8597228p-8490044c.html

NEWSDESK

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, Jan 28
28 Jan 2007 11:36:39 GMT
Source: Reuters

Jan 28 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq at 1115 GMT on Sunday:

NAJAF - Iraqi security forces battled Sunni militants in orchards on the northern outskirts of the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf, the governor said. A Reuters reporter saw a U.S. helicopter trailing smoke come down after a burst of machinegun fire. A police officer said it had crashed and the two crew were dead. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military.

http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28647855.htm

Choppers fall like stones. They don't "Glide"

of the falling rock..

I heard the "Boats" and the "Witchdoctors." I heard the MAYDAYS of the "Dutch-masters" and the "Nails" on guard. "King" and "Moonbeam" brought in "Sandys" and "Jolly Greens." I saw the US convoys in the red dust of QL-9 east of the border. I saw the PAVN T-56 tanks (Soviet built) in the open on QL-9 just west of the border in Laos. I saw a flight of two F-4s roll in on the tanks (one tank destroyed; one F-4 and crew lost in heavy 37mm AA fire).

LAM SON 719 was pure folly. Murderous folly. An insane surge in the face of a totally lost cause. The official US Army Command number of US KIAs was was 219, but the media was told there were "only" 102 killed in LAM SON 719 (and 102 was the number reported in Newsweek). More lies. The ARVN lost 1529, if - and only if - you believe the official propaganda of the day.

LAM SON 719: February - March 1971.

Not sure about Lam Son I, but from what I read of official Viet Nam history, the subsequent Operation Dewey Canyon/Lam Son II was perhaps the most bloodiest episode in the entire Vietnam war on the ground; approx. 50% of the entire South Vietnamese army were either wiped out or put out of action in the fierce battles initiated in that campaign.

I am going by the statistics published by a source I found in the library some years ago.

And it really did not end, for us, until around May 1971 when the wet season came. The name Lam Son 719 (spoken: Lam-Son seven-one-nine) derived from the name of the birth village of an ancient hero of Viet Nam, the year 1971, and QL-9 (east-west Route 9, which - little more than an abandoned dirt trail - meandered from Quang Tri to Khe Sanh and then into Laos, where it formed a nexus of death with the Ho Chi Minh Trail at Tchepone, Laos).

The horror, brutality, and total uselessness of that operation cannot be understated. The bravery of the soldiers who fought the battles of Lam Son 719 - men of the US and South Viet Nam (ARVN), and men and women of PAVN (NVA) - was mind-blowing. In the case of the US and ARVN forces, they fought for each other and their own survival. In the case of the PAVN (NVA), they fought for the cause of re-unification, yes; but they too fought, like most warriors, for each other and their own mortal existence.

It is too bad Bu$h/Cheney have so little knowledge of the history of the American War in Viet Nam. I would doubt that they know anything about Lam Son 719: The 1971 Surge.

Tchepone was a mother-fucker

We did drop like a rock and had to land on a sandbar off Corpus Christi. The damn pilots didn't warn me what was going on either. I bout needed new undies.

They adjusted some things, took off, and tested the auto-rotation thing again and it worked right that time.

I will never forget the falling feeling from the first go-round, though.

In fact, helos *do* glide (autorotate), but must fly a distinctly different descent profile from unpowered fixed-wing aircraft. Not something you do by choice, but autos don't inherently doom the crew to an unhappy landing.

I've heard that once a helicopter becomes unbalanced in flight, such as being hit in critical areas like the roter or tail, by flak or anti-aircraft spray, it can create intense vibrations inside the fuselage and passenger compartments, such that the vibrations themselves can produce internal injuries resulting in injury or death to the unfortunate passengers.

The damn things vibrate anyway but put a couple of holes in a rotor blade and feel the excitement

What's that, like three this week?

wondering if they've acquired some new anti-helo devices or strategies.

and the US military is admitting the use of SAMs is a "new trend".....

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=1473394&C=america

A Russian-made surface-to-air missile launched by anti-American insurgents brought down a U.S. military helicopter that crashed in Iraq on Jan. 16, ABC News reported Jan. 17, citing unnamed Pentagon officials.

The network said the shootdown represented “a troubling new development” because there are hundreds and possibly thousands of SA-7 missiles that remain unaccounted for in Iraq.

The AH-64 Apache went down north of Baghdad, killing its two crew members and becoming the third U.S. helicopter to be shot down in 10 days. A little-known Islamist group, Salahu Din al-Ayubi (Saladin) Brigades, claimed in an Internet statement it used rockets to shoot down the Apache.

According to the ABC report, SA-7s had been part of Saddam Hussein’s arsenal, much of which was looted after the invasion.
But until now, insurgents had never successfully used them against an American aircraft.

<snip>

Meanwhile, the U.S. military is investigating whether there is a common pattern in the loss of three helicopters over the past 10 days in Iraq that points to a new threat, a Pentagon spokesman said Jan. 17.

Since it looks like the one on the 20th, where 12 soldiers were killed, was also a result of hostile fire.

Edit: forgot about the one on the 23rd when the 5 Blackwater mercs were killed. That should really be counted as well.

It wouldn't surprise me if some idiot officer from on high declared that the helicopters were ineffective because the "cowardly" pilots were flying too high, and mandated them to fly lower.

Either that, or there is some other reason for them to fly lower... atmospheric conditions this past couple of weeks, or maybe lack maintenance is preventing them to fly higher...

CIA trained the future nutballs of AlQ how to shoot down the evil Soviet choppers, now the tactics have come back to be used on us. Way to go Reagan.

Iraq was Sunni controlled before geeb (that's jeb's brother) caused the occupation, now WE are battling Sunni insurgents who apparently are brothers to the Saudi Sunni royal family. The Shiites are our allies; yet Iraq's Sadh is a Shiite leader! Sadh is our ENEMY! The Israelis attack Lebanon, and its Shiite Hezbollah- they are enemies. So:
We are enemies of the Iraq Sunnis who are allies of the Saudi Sunnis who are enemies of the Iranian Shiites who are enemies of Israel and also our ALLIES in Iraq, though we are planning to nuke their brothers Iran!
maybe we could use coloured balls?
(see why a free press maybe a fundamental of a true democratic system? yet the repukes SCHEMED 35 years to turn media into a pig!)

Not another Blackhawk i hope.

They've obviously got a new tactic or weapon that they're starting to use.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/16567343.htm

BAGHDAD, Jan. 28 - A U.S. helicopter was shot down early Sunday afternoon near the provincial capital Najaf during a pitched battle with fighters described as religious fanatics.

A McClatchy Newspapers correspondent from Najaf, Qasim Zen, observed the helicopter lose control and crash to the ground in flames after it appeared to have been struck by rocket fired from the ground. The correspondent had been observing the battle from a safe position about half a mile away from the fight in the village of al Zarga. Al Zarga is about 5 miles from Najaf and about 80 miles south of Baghdad.

No information on U.S. casualties was available. Military public affairs officials in Baghdad said Sunday afternoon they were unaware of the helicopter downing.

The correspondent observed the helicopter shot down about 1:35 p.m. Iraqi time Sunday (5:35 a.m. EST).

...



I would say it's pretty worrisome if our choppers are getting shot down. That's how we move troops and supplies now that the roads are impassable.

The provincial governor of Najaf said a US military helicopter had been shot down by what he called "enemy fire" in Zarqa, scene of the clashes, and Iraqi police were quoted as saying the two crew on board were dead.

A Reuters correspondent reported seeing an American helicopter trailing smoke after a burst of machine gun fire.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6307587.stm

and WTF are 20,000 more US troops going to accomplish?

i notice that according to reports that the iraqi military and the u.s. managed to kill 250 insurgents -- what they leave out is -- how much did that helicopter cost?

we can not keep this up -- not in lives and not in money.

Smoke rises from the site where a US helicopter allegedly crashed near the town of Zarqa, north of the central Iraqi city of Najaf. A US military helicopter was reportedly shot down in Iraq and a girl's school came under attack in a wave of ambushes, car bombs and gunbattles that left at least 24 people dead.(AFP/Qassem Zein)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070128/ts_nm/iraq_najaf_helicopter_dc;_ylt=AoNvWML53tmdTjWsxIxsLZbMWM0F;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-


U.S. helicopter down in Iraq battle, 2 killed

17 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two U.S. soldiers were killed when their helicopter crashed north of the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf on Sunday, the U.S. military said.

A Reuters reporter saw a U.S. helicopter come down after a burst of machinegun fire and he saw a trail of smoke from the helicopter before it came down.

............

A U.S. statement said the helicopter "went down" but did not say whether it was shot down.

"While conducting operations to assist Iraqi Security Forces that were attacked earlier today, a Multi-National Division - Baghdad helicopter went down at approximately 1:30 p.m. (1030 GMT) north of An Najaf," a U.S. statement said.

"Two soldiers were killed when the helicopter went down. Their remains have been recovered," it said.

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

http://icasualties.org/oif/

01/28/07 Reuters: Two crew members of U.S. helicopter killed (unconfirmed)
He was unable to see what had happened to the helicopter, but officers in Iraq's 8th Army Division and policemen said it had crashed and that the two crew members were dead. The U.S. military said it did not comment on ongoing operations.

Time Periods Defined
U.S. Deaths Confirmed By The DoD: 3067
Reported U.S. Deaths Pending DoD Confirmation: 11
Total 3078
DoD Confirmation List

I'm starting to suspect the answer is no.

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- An initial investigation into the crash of a U.S. helicopter on Sunday near Najaf, Iraq indicates the Ah-64 Apache was shot down by heavy machine-gun fire, a senior U.S. military official told CNN.

The crash killed two U.S. soldiers aboard the helicopter, the U.S. military confirmed. The cause is still officially under investigation.

Because there was no smoke trail, investigators do not believe a missile or a rocket-propelled grenade was responsible for downing the chopper, the senior official said.

An Apache cannot be downed by small-arms fire, the official said, so all indications point to heavy machine-gun fire, possibly 50-caliber.

more:http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/01/29/monday/index.html?section=cnn_latest

I hope soldiers refuse to carry out orders and refuse to deploy to war theatres. Those to chose to go along with things will confront a flexible insurgency supported by large sections of the Iraqi people. Invade Iran, and Iraq will turn into a sea to people's war just like Vietnam.