- 9th September 2004 - (6010 words)
It was only eight in the morning yet the mercury was nudging one hundred degrees on the sun-soaked Parvan soil, of eastern Afghanistan. Lieutenant Kelly Cassidy sat in a cockpit at the controls of her aircraft, which was neatly parked in the keyhole entrance slightly off the end of the ten thousand foot runway at Bagram airfield. It was Kelly's turn to play 'the waiting game', a polite colloquial term given to rapid deployment stand-by duties. Her Fairchild Republic Thunderbolt II was loaded to the teeth with an array of weaponry, fuelled to capacity, ready for action, and waiting.
Kelly had just started her third hour of boredom and was starting to become aware of stiffness in her rear end. Were it not for the luxury of a beach umbrella erected above her head and a tattered Mills and Boon romance novel she was reading for the seventh time, she would almost certainly have dozed off into her favourite hallucination involving, dust free, bluegrass fields near Paris, Kentucky and hot tubs full to the rim with beautiful bubbles and sweet smelling perfumes.
On the ground beside the aircraft fuselage in the shade of the wing lay Master Sergeant Josie Alderman her green tee shirt tied to help simulate sun baking on a Florida beach. Josie was reading one of the two Man magazines she had traded with a grunt the night before, for six small chocolate bars and twenty-three cigarettes. Josie was a little embarrassed to be reading a Man magazine but she was desperate for something new in her life, and she told herself she was reading the magazine for the articles not the pictures but she kept turning the magazine sideways every now and then, like the guys who say the same thing do.
Both Ladies lifted their heads as the unmistakable sound of a C141B Startlifter lumbered along the taxiway towards them. It was the 8am 'ticket home.' Every morning one of these monsters climbed into the sky and disappeared in the direction of Germany en route to the States. Everyone at Bagram stopped to watch it take-off. Kelly and Josie stared at the plane as it approached, turned in front of them, roared and started to disappear away from them towards home. The moment the main wheels left the ground both ladies mumbled "lucky buggers" to themself and their eyes remained fixed on the plane as it slowly shrank into the dusty grey-blue Afghan sky.
No sooner had each lady returned to the pages of their book when the planes radio shattered the calm, "Warthog EL207 this is Bagram tower; your services have been requested by Airborne Command prepare for takeoff and await further instruction."
Kelly immediately pressed her radio response button saying, "This is Warthog EL207 will comply, out".
By the time Kelly finished speaking Josie had jumped to her feet, climbed the access ladder, folded and thrown the beach umbrella and the novel to the tarmac a considerable distance behind her, and was leaning over into the cockpit removing a series of red tagged pins attach to the safety harness, designed to render much of the aircrafts numerous switches and controls unusable while stationary on the ground, as each pin was removed Josie held it up for an instant allowing Kelly's eyes to acknowledge before the pin was placed into the small locker beside and behind Kelly's head. Meanwhile Kelly was busy talking to herself while working a series of switches and paddling at flight controls. Dials and gauges started lighting-up while various parts of the aircraft commence to rattle, buzz, whirl or click. With an expanding whistle the engines commenced to breath as they rapidly journeyed towards life, a rumble, some shaking, a roar and the squeak of brakes completed the metamorphism of silent metal into a living breathing 'war bird'.
Josie removed the last of the pins from the ACES II ejection seat above Kelly's head and stowed it in the locker. She raised her thumb saying, "Go get them Killer, and look after my aircraft."
Kelly acknowledged with a raised thumb and a twinkle from her left eye. By the time Kelly returned to her controls Josie was on the ground, had stowed the access ladder, closed the ladder locker and started to run around the aircraft removing more red tags, small covers and the wheel chocks. In no more than ten seconds Josie was standing forward of the left wing, her thumb raised above her head, watching.
Kelly again raised her thumb the aircraft immediately started to role forward, parts of the wing began to grow and the canopy commenced to close. Without moving her lips Josie uttered, "Please! Come back safely, Mam."
Kelly spoke into the radio, "Bagram Control this is Warthog EL207 we are ready and standing by awaiting your instruction."
The radio responded, "EL207, you are clear for takeoff on runway three seven, barrier down. Climb to ten thousand feet and await instruction from Airborne Command; Good Hunting."
Kelly turned onto the runway locked the nose wheel and moved the condition levers fully forward, the two General Electric TF-34 turbofans screamed and rumbled while seven thousand two hundred horsepower focused on pushing Kelly forward at a rapidly increasing speed. Kelly spoke into the radio, "Rolling", followed a short time later by, "Committed". Josie stared at Kelly as they were consumed by distance. After what seemed like ages Kelly raised the nose and started skyward, as the wheels retracted Josie blew a kiss and called out loudly, "God Speed Mam, Come back safely; love you."
Kelly throttled back to seventy five percent as she climbed through seven thousand feet and steadied her rate of climb to save fuel, as she reached nine thousand feet the radio came to life, "Warthog EL207 this is Widow Maker on-board Sentry, please respond."
A smile come to Kelly's face to hear the voice and unmistakable call sign of Wendy Maiden, her room mate at Officer School, the class of Ninety Six. Kelly spoke to the radio, "Widow Maker this is Killer Chick flying EL207 at your service. What can we do for you this morning?"
Wendy's voice responded, "Hey there, Killer; how are they hanging? We have a situation to your east requiring your expertise. You will be in a loitering role. We have a group of our gents delayed at their pick up zone by an unserviceable Chinook. Your presence has been requested in a precautionary capacity as they exposed their position prior to the chopper delay. I am arming your displays now. You will notice your journey and destination proximity to the Pakistan border so we urge you to take all precaution in this regard."
Kelly again spoke into her radio, "Will comply, Nice to hear you are still sleeping with clean sheets Widow, I'll be in touch as I approach the destination, in seventy minutes; Killer, out."
The radio started up again, "Negative Killer we require you on site in fifty minutes, don't worry about the fuel tab we will take care of it. We have our Extender here and it will be at your disposal; Widow over."
"Will comply; fifty minutes it is; Killer, out," Kelly replied.
Kelly immediately throttled up to ninety percent and while continuing her climb, banked right to align herself on a bearing of thirty-seven degrees matching the navigational heading now showing on her heads-up display.
Kelly climbed to eighteen thousand feet before levelling out; her route would weave a little to avoid over-flying populated areas, as was the custom. She flew to the north east, tracking between Karak and Eslshafi, to the north of Atiti and Welo, the south of Shahran where she commences to track further northeast, into Badakhahan State, skirting the border of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province. The rugged Hindu Kush Mountains started climbing higher in front of the plane; the higher ridges and peeks were now capped with snow and only a few thousand feet below. After passing Deh Gol, Kelly headed further eastward, along the Wakhan Corridor, where she could clearly see Turkistan to the north as well as Pakistan to the south, she passed south of Kand Khan and again headed further eastward to track south of Deh Gholaman, where she allowed her thoughts to drift for a second wondering if Marco Polo thought this place looked like hell when he passed through here all those years before. "At least I don't have to walk and I will not be taking four years," she thought.
Kelly was now almost cutting straight across the high ridges and steep sided valleys, giving quite a sensation of speed as the land kept dropping away suddenly only to rapidly rise up again in what seems like only a few yards. The country below was the usual hot or freezing, dusty, rugged brown offering, totally devoid of vegetation save for an attempt at a green strip in the valley floor near the winding stream that always occupied these valleys. Kelly shook her head contemplating why anyone would choose to live here and used the remaining flight minutes to carry out diagnostics on her weapons and flight systems. Everything appeared to be working fine, a rarity, "Must be my lucky day," she thought.
With her position due south of Sarhadd, Kelly banked sharply right to travel south following a narrow, steep valley that headed to Barowgbil in Pakistan, she could see the road below winding along the western wall of the inhospitable valley.
Kelly throttled back to only thirty percent and adjusted her controls to keep the nose from rising, allowed a considerable reduction in speed and the commencement of a rather rapid descent while appearing to be in level flight. She was about to speak into the radio when it came to life, like magic, "Killer this is Widow you have made good time; your hosts are thirty five miles in front of you and will be four degrees left of your current heading, they are in a defensive position on a small outcrop just above the valley floor at seven thousand eight hundred feet. Their friendly status should be appearing on your displays. I'm patching you into direct contact with Greenhead on channel eighty-seven; you are to maintain a listening watch on this channel at all times. You should take precautions for the possibility of surface to air missile attack at low altitudes in this area; out"
Kelly acknowledged the message, set her infrared flare, and electronic chaff, countermeasure systems to an active state, opened up the direct communication channel to the troops on the ground and commenced to speak, "Greenhead this is Killer Chick on-board Warthog, please respond."
After a short delay the radio came back to life, "Killer Chick this is Greenhead; what can we do for the lady with the painted fingernails sitting in air-conditioned comfort, still smelling all pretty from this mornings bath?"
Kelly rolled her eyes and immediately replied, "Greenhead or was that Dickhead; I've had my morning absolutely screwed up coming out here to hold your hand. It's rather obvious you have time to spare down there. If anyone starts to cause you concern I would be happy to offer my assistance. Would you acknowledge when you have a visual on me. I'm currently descending on your position from the north approximately seven miles out, over."
The radio started up as Greenhead replied, "That's an affirmative Killer Chick we have you in sight. Come down so we can get a good look at your legs."
Kelly again rolled her eyes; throttling back still further, she slowed such that she needed to deploy her flaps and slots to maintain altitude. She was now only some three hundred feet above and one and a half miles short of Greenheads reported position. As the lift increased she throttled up to sixty percent to maintain level flight, at the low airspeed. The landing gear warning alarm sounded which Kelly ignored other than to mentally acknowledge she was travelling as slow as she possibly could. Kelly spoke into the radio, "Well Howdy-Do Greenhead I have a visual on your position; wave so I can tell Mum all about the new man in my life, and now that we know each other intimately you can drop the formality and call me Killer."
Kelly noticed one of the soldiers stand up, take his hat off and wave it over his head; clearly she had found Greenhead. However she also noticed on her GPS display the friendly fire lock was actually some three hundred and fifty feet from where she observed their physical position, Kelly immediately opened communications with the AWACS to inform Widow of the problem, "Widow this is Killer. I have a visual on Greenhead, their plotted position is displaying incorrectly on my systems. May we calibrate? Over."
Wendy responded, "That is an affirmative Killer proceed; on your mark"
Kelly throttled up while retracting her flaps and slots and watched as her airspeed rapidly increased to three hundred and forty knots, she banked sharply left, turning around to make another pass over the troops on the ground. Opening her voice channel she said, “Greenhead we have a little administrative work to do up here; I will be making a low parse over your position, at speed. Please instruct your people to remain low and I would appreciate it if they didn't shoot or throw anything in the air."
Greenhead while somewhat puzzled, acknowledged in time to see the Warthog flying straight at him, as it became uncomfortably close it flipped, becoming inverted and continued diving further downward until within a few feet of the ground. Greenhead hit the deck screaming a few quickly chosen expletives. He was sure the plane was about to crash and hoped it might make it over the top of his troops before exploding into pieces. As Kelly passed over his position she called into the radio "Mark" and watched as her instruments immediately updated, displaying the correct location of the troops. Kelly returned herself to an upright position and proceeded to slow down and climb away from the ground to a position out of harms way. Kelly beamed as she called Greenhead, "Hey Greenhead I didn't really get to look at your face, you seemed rather busy, but your butt looked fine to me. Hope the dirt tasted OK."
After a short delay, Greenhead replied with a hint of agitation on his lips, "Jesus woman, err... Killer I hope that worked for you because from down here we missed the funny part," and after another brief delay, "But I'll give it to you Killer you sure do know how to drive that thing. I take it this is not your first time this side of the barbed-wire; if you don't mind we will pass on the instant re-plays."
Kelly again spoke down the voice channel, "Greenhead doesn't appear to be much excitement down here. I think I'll put on the sunglasses and take the fifty-dollar tour to check out the sights. If things get warm down there, feel free to buzz me; our aim is to please. I'll be around; Killer, out."
Kelly climbed out of the valley into the clear above the mountains where she could see for miles in every direction and started to take in the area for likely positions that might cause grief to the guys on the ground. There were a few huts high up in the valley; they had the potential to make a rather efficient observation post if anyone hostile was there with radio equipment, a phone or something to communicate firing instructions. However this would be unlikely to happen, as Kelly knew the AWACS was detecting, listening to and locating all electronic communication coming from the area. Anything hostile and they would target the position for an instant make over. The road up the valley into Pakistan was the obvious source of an intense attack. Anywhere on the surrounding hills would make for a good strike and run attack although the lack of cover would make a repeat performance unlikely as the AWACS would automatically target any hostile fire source and Kelly knew she would be onto the location before they were able to leave the area.
Kelly turned her attention to fuel, she did her sums calculating she could remain here until eleven o'clock and still make it back to Bagram without any drama. She noted the time was now nine twenty, giving her ninety minutes in the area without Widow's tanker; assuming the tanker is only ten minutes in and out. "There are some things a girl most take care of herself; fuel first before we extend our stay, so it's a tanker by eleven or I'm out of here," she told herself as she changed direction to head north, back towards Sarhadd for the third time. She was passing to the west of the town and wondering if they had running water on tap down there when the radio started up, "Killer this is Widow, we have received a Joint Star report of vehicle movement in Pakistan heading towards your area. They seem somewhat suspicious we have four vehicles, two loaded lorries and two lightly loaded pick-up sized vehicles. A satellite pass has been requested and we will have the results in a few minutes. Should the vehicles continue towards you at the current pace they will be in your area in approximately seventy minutes. How is your fuel state for that time frame?"
Kelly replied, "Widow that would be towards the end of my fuel window. Perhaps we should book a hook-up with your Extender for say, fifty minutes. This would allow us to loiter here until round two o'clock if we need to. Hope you enjoy your silver service lunch up there, after you go to the bathroom and freshen up! If these vehicles are hostile it is a good bet we are being observed in this area. How is Greenheads transportation out of here progressing?"
The radio responded, "That's an affirmative Killer we will have our Extender in position above you ready for a hook-up in forty minutes. In the meantime try not to put yourself in visual contact with the vehicles, no need to scare them off. We have detected no communication from your locality this morning although we did catch someone having a rather long chat at dusk yesterday while Greenhead was settling in for the night. Greenhead's Chinook is in the air; estimated time of pick-up is also forty minutes. However we have asked them to delay until we see what these vehicles are doing. The Chinook will be re-fuelling on the Extender immediately after you and prior to the pick-up. You have a nice mental experience for lunch down there and when we have time I'll tell you all about the bubble bath I'm going to have tomorrow morning, when we land; Widow out."
Gee that was a low swipe, Kelly thought; it's all right for some, based in Holland, probably living in a quaint little house with a view over the canal, a husband looking after the kids. I wonder if Wendy knows I am sharing six showers and one washbasin with one hundred eighty-seven other females at Bagram. God she thought, how would she like to try and stay clean while wading for eight minutes through three inch deep dust to a cot in a tent with a dirt floor and five snoring tent-mates. I'll bet she doesn't know what it's like to balance the merit of getting dressed for a sixteen minute round trip in the dirt to the porcelain or a quick squat out the back, like an animal, at three in the morning... I'll bet she has a chardonnay and some strawberries while she takes her bubble bath tomorrow morning, Kelly thought as she turned to travel east towards china for a few minutes.
After her time was up flying east Kelly headed southwest to return towards Greenheads position. To break the boredom she started to wobble her ailerons so the plane banked sideways and sat upright at right angles to the ground, first to the right and then the left she used her rubbers to prevent the plane from losing altitude. After six of these 'hand stands' she rolled over and flew upside down for a minute before returning to normal flight, she told herself gymnastics was a healthy exercise. Kelly passed over Greenheads position high above him knowing that her altitude and low throttle setting would allow her to pass unnoticed, everything seemed quiet down there so she turned northwest tracking towards Karkat. After several minutes and as she approached the town she turned south. She started to wonder if the Afghan farmers down below had morning tea or kept working through to lunch without stopping.
Kelly flew south for three minutes and was about to change direction to travel northeast when she noticed the imprint of a large plane suddenly appearing on her locating radar above and a little to her west, "That will be the Extender," she thought as it started to display a KC-10 friendly tag identifying it. Further to the southwest at a lower altitude she noticed the CH-47SD friendly imprint of the Chinook and was interested to notice the helicopter was miles inside Pakistan, "Must be taking a shortcut. I wonder where they have come from," she thought. On cue Wendy came over the radio, "Killer this is Widow it's time for your ten thirty fuel stop, the Extender will come down to your current altitude and sit four miles off to your west. The low altitude is to pick-up the Chinook immediately after you, so maintain a lookout for both aircraft as you approach. We have a confirmation of the vehicles, they are definitely hostile the lorries are covered but appear to be transporting troops. Both the pickups are armed, the lead vehicle, has a light anti-aircraft gun mounted in the rear and the second appears to have a mortar tube mounted in it. So, we will have a job for you after you refuel; Widow out."
Kelly acknowledged the message and steered westward ahead of the Extender so they would merge rapidly, in only a few minutes she sat in position behind the Extender, a large Boeing DC-10 ex-passenger plane, which had been converted to a flying service station. During the approach to within a few feet of her seat at the rear of the Extender, Kelly could see the Boom Operator was female. Kelly watched closely as the re-fuelling boom lowered into place just inches in front of her cockpit and noticed with some intensity the fuel levels starting to rise. In two minutes Kelly was again full of fuel and 'backing' slowly away. As she slowly moved left out from behind the Extender, Kelly noted the Chinook moving into position to take fuel and to her surprise noticed the Army pilot flying it looked female, "Must be ladies day," she thought as she manoeuvred a safe distance away from the other aircraft. Kelly waited until the Chinook also moved back from the Extender and watched as the large plane gathered speed, pulling ahead as it commenced to climb up to wherever it had come down from.
Again the radio started up with Wendy's familiar voice, "Killer this is Widow we might have you home in time for lunch. I'll ask you to remain undetected but move closer to Greenheads location in preparation for a strike. The vehicles are now some six miles from his position and I'm expecting him to report them shortly. They are travelling approximately two hundred feet apart and making thirty miles per hour. It would be rather convenient if you could pick off both the lorries before anyone has the opportunity to deploy from them. The two smaller vehicles are more likely to want to fight so they should be easy pickings. All the vehicles are now in Afghanistan and have been targeted, as you will now be seeing on your systems. However we would ask you to wait until they display hostile intent or Greenhead requests your intervention before you take them out. I will shortly be patching Butch Lady in the Chinook onto Greenheads voice channel so they can commence their pick-up procedure. Good Hunting Killer; Widow out"
Kelly acknowledged Widow’s message and immediately headed north east, back towards Sarhadd and commenced to reduce altitude. She started targeting the vehicles and allocating ordinance from the detail now showing on her heads-up-display. As she worked away on her systems she listened to the conversation on Greenheads voice channel,
"Greenhead this is Butch lady on-board Chinook please respond."
"Butch Lady this is Greenhead; what can we do for the lady in the big green whirly bird this morning?"
"Greenhead more the other way round, I think. I have a note here from the Big Preacher saying go pick-up some lost souls in need of a bath, spiritual cleansing and a drink. I hope you are all packed and ready to go as my estimated time to your location will be seven minutes. I hope you guys have a good landing pad ready, as I intend to be at your location fifteen seconds maximum, so get off your thumbs."
"Copy that Butch, seven minutes will comply; God, whatever happened to all the nice southern girls who know their place, speak politely and always wear two petticoats?"
"Who knows Greenhead; they probably all work in Baton Rouge, in Daddies millinery store; I know they all failed boot camp so you won't be finding any around here. Get your kit together if you're coming with us. Contact me and guide me in when you have a visual; Butch out"
"On you Sister," Kelly thought as she continued to ready herself for a strike. She was a little disappointed she didn't know what would transpire before she loaded up this morning. Had she been carrying a CBU-97 Sensor Fuzzed Weapon on-board, she would have been able to sit well above and neutralize the whole convey in one big bang, all nice and clinical, poor buggers wouldn't have known what hit them. But life is full of compromises, now they will have to watch as I give them a couple of AGM-65 Mavericks for the trucks, and an GAU-8 cannon burst on the pick-ups, all from the front, so I can be sure the Mavericks hit something solid and explode. I should be able to affect this in one pass, if they co-operate. Then I'll turn back on them, with a steep starboard turn so I don't point towards Greenhead, and pick up anyone I missed with a few Mk82 five hundred pounders or one CBU-87 cluster bomb; they can choose which for me, at the time.
Kelly started to plan her route in detail; it would be low level, up the valley towards the south. This would take her directly over Greenhead's position, again, "poor dear," she said to herself through a wry smile. The voice channel started up, "Butch, this is Greenhead I can hear you but have not yet got a visual. Hold off where you are for now as we have company here; out to you. Killer this is Greenhead we have vehicle movement on the road to the south of us coming our way. Would you take a look-see for us."
Kelly replied, "That is a negative Greenhead; I have been instructed to lay low until these vehicles demonstrate hostile intent. We have been watching and tracking them for some time. We are ready and in position to strike. To bring you up to speed; The lead vehicle is a pick-up with a mounted light machine gun, the second vehicle is also a pick-up and it seems to have a mortar tube in the back, following are two covered trucks which may be carrying troops. They are travelling approximately two hundred feet apart at thirty miles per hour. It's your call; Feel free to stir them up and bring it on."
Greenhead immediately responded, "God, I hope they’re lousy shots. My mother warned me I'd be sidelined on a dusty Afghan hill if I didn't study hard; I should have listened to her. There seems to be no room for real men in this man's army any more. I think I need a sex change. Killer thanks for the heads-up and support, good hunting. We will fire a few shots to get their attention, standby."
Kelly had by now turned south again and was commencing her run into Greenheads valley at low altitude. She armed her Mavericks and targeted the first to find the third vehicle using the electro-optical trace coming via the AWACS and was automatically set to follow that vehicle. Kelly estimated she would gain visual contact with the target from eight miles out and could dispatch this missile giving her time to target a second Maverick on the other truck and fire, five miles out. Kelly would then be free to manoeuvre herself to bring the cannon to bear on the two pick-ups. "Shame I cannot target several weapons at once in this old bucket, it would make life so much easier," she thought as she started to build up speed and set herself on what she felt would be the optimum altitude.
At fourteen miles out and travelling at three hundred and eighty knots, the radio came to life, "Killer this is Widow we have detected rifle fire coming from Greenheads position, standby."
A short delay ensued then, "Killer the lead vehicle has stopped and is firing towards Greenheads position. You are authorized to eliminate all targets, good hunting."
Kelly replied, "Will comply, out"
Kelly then turned her attention to Greenheads voice channel, "Greenhead your targets have turned hostile I'm on the case from your north and am preparing to returning fire. On my command check your fire; I don't want you grunts shooting up my rear-end; standby"
Kelly banked slightly right to follow the valley, noticing she had visual contact with Greenhead and the vehicles, her display was showing eight point six miles to target. She levelled the plane to eliminate any 'G' force that might impede missile guidance. The six seconds wait for the first strike seemed like two hours but finally the missile demonstrated it had locked on target. A plume of white smoke engulfed the left side of her cockpit for an instant, a sure receipt for a successful dispatch. Kelly immediately turned her attention to targeting the second Maverick on the fourth vehicle, a task she completed with twelve seconds to spare. Having no reason to delay she dispatched it and received the same smoky response. Getting back on the radio she called Greenhead, "Greenhead, check fire, you might as well sit back on your 'chairs million-aire' and watch the fireworks; Killer out"
Kelly noticed all the grunts turn their head towards her as each of the missiles took their turn to streak past, no more than fifty feet above them. "They must make one hell of a noise," she thought as she used her rudder to keep the gun sight aligned on the lead vehicle and also bring the second vehicle into the same alignment. She noticed the flashing of tracer-fire from the forward vehicle stream through the air in an arc as it turned away from Greenhead towards herself. Kelly watched the first missile hit its target with devastating results. There was a flash followed by a debris plume, then nothing but a patch of twisted black, with debris still floating around it. As the second truck suffered the same fate she noticed a flash rise from the second pick-up and immediately turned her attention to warn Greenhead but before she could speak Wendy came through the voice channel, "Greenhead, incoming hostile mortar round prepare to take cover, I will call splash; out to you. Good shooting so far, Killer."
Kelly ignored any response as she was approaching her point to fire on the two pick-ups. She gave the forward vehicle a quick burst and watched as the whole thing erupted, initially disappearing in a dust ball, then exploded in a flash of flame, which quickly turned deathly black. This obscured visual contact with the second vehicle for what seemed like ages. Eventually she caught a sighting through the gloom; made a quick adjustment to the aircraft attitude and fired another short burst, getting the same result on that vehicle too.
Kelly flew across the target area then banked sharply right to turn around as planned, in mid-turn she heard Wendy's 'splash' come through the voice channel. She passed back over what had seconds before been four vehicles and many people. It was obvious there was no need to use any more ordinance today, no one was going to walk away from down there. In the distance, to the left and forward of Greenhead she noticed the explosion from the mortar round as it returned to earth out of harms way.
Kelly opened up to her voice channel again, "Greenhead I guess it's time to go home, these guys will not be bothering you or Uncle Sam any more."
The radio immediately responded, "Killer, copy that; Butch come straight in and get us. I'm becoming home sick. Jesus Killer, remind me not to ever get dirty on you. I noted your tail address, EL207, a Louisiana Belle if I'm not mistaken. You know my Momma lives over near Alexandra and would just love it, if we came a calling for tea one Sunday afternoon. I can hear her now' "Do you take two sugars my dear; my goodness Bernie where ever did you find such a cute young thing?" That's when I could tell her, "Why Momma she is a... - Butch this is Greenhead we have a visual on you; we are located to your northeast; throwing smoke now; over,"
Butch replied, "I see green."
Followed by Greenhead, "Come and get us. You cute southern thing, you."
And Butch again, "Greenhead, get your mind out of your pants. Killer, impressive work you have done here. You keep that ugly thing of yours well away from me, please."
Kelly steered away from the Chinook and watched it approaching Greenhead, as it slowed the rear door started to wind down and the smoky dust curled around it like a large waterspout engulfing the rear rotor. The rear wheels had no sooner touched the ground then Greenhead and his team raced up the ramp disappearing inside. The Chinook immediately started skyward again with the rear door closing.
The radio started up again with Wendy's familiar voice, "That's a wrap guys not a bad result all round, Killer we have plotted your return path to escort Butch and her cargo southwest until you are parallel with Jalalabad then you can make a quick northwest dash for the waiting bathroom; the course is in your display. We have conveyed our compliments to your Squadron, the ground crew will be waiting to mark your nose count with four more notches."
Kelly again acknowledged and started the slow climb out of the valley with the Chinook. The trip home went quickly and without incident. While they were passing to the west of Jalalabad Kelly and Butch exchanged a few niceties over the radio, before Kelly peeled off altering her course to the northwest. Kelly had just called up Bagram control and was given clearance to land when to her surprise the radio sounded again, "Killer this is Butch, something I thought I should share with you before put your head down tonight. The fifteen horny grunts sitting behind me, with nothing to do and plenty going on in their minds have just voted you their favourite mystery pinup girl. You are now their official ‘Warrior Chick’; in the context of what these guys go through each day it's the best compliment you will ever receive. Sweet dreams, you take care; Butch, out."
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