Quick reaction force

In order to facilitate the occasional emergency mission within an air assault unit, there is a quick reaction team.  During the first deployment, when you were on this crew - it was normally a day to find something to do because normally you weren't going anywhere. 

One of those rare occasions came and we were launched.  A humvee had hit something that had caused it to rollover upside down into a ravine.  The soldiers that were in the humvee were trapped there, so time wasn't on our side.  We launched having to go to another FOB to pick up a dive team before we headed to the actual rollover site. 

When we were picking up the dive team, they seemed to be in no big hurry.  We were all getting a little impatient given the circumstances.  As they brought their gear out onto the flight line, they left it sitting in a big pile a little ways away from the aircraft and loaded up on the aircraft.  When we asked them about it, we basically got 'loading that is your job'... we promptly corrected them and they took their time getting back out of the aircraft as we worked on loading it. 

We finally took off out of there and headed to the location, which happened to be right next to a little village, so everyone was on the defense.  As the crew chiefs helped guide the pilots into land, straw started flying around everywhere.  We tried to maintain visual of both the ground and the village, but the straw was creating a nice block. 

After we landed, we started downloading the equipment... then the dive team stopped us and told us they weren't sure they were going to stay.  I relayed the message to the pilots who were as in much disbelief as I was.  The majority of the dive team went and sat down on the embankment that led up to the ravine and waited for orders from their team leader.  Finally, the pilots told me to go tell the dive team we were unloading their stuff.  Two blackhawks sitting on the ground were setting ourselves up as giant targets. 

The equipment was unloaded and the shortly after the dive team started gearing up to start their dives.  We took off and headed back to Taji to await word for pickup.