British Chinook CASEVAC's U.S. Rangers | October 2010

um in january of 2006 british secretary for defense john reed confirmed that british troops will be deploying to hellmann province in southern afghanistan as part of the expansion of nato operations in the country this deployment was codenamed operation herrick and although it was predominantly an army mission an air component drawn from the royal air force and the army air corps was provided as a support element among the units in this air component were eight chinook helicopters which were grouped collectively on the one three one zero flight based at camp bastion and were deployed on a rotation basis between the raf's free chinook squadrons number seven number 18 and number 27 squadrons for the british the chinook helicopter proved to be the number one asset that kept operation herrick moving forward and it has often dubbed the workhorse of the eight year campaign with flight lieutenant alex duncan a chinook pilot noted in his memoir that the chinook on the other hand is a tool with it you can influence combat resupply troops and bases evacuate wounded soldiers move them for assaults move heavy loads there's just so much it can do the british experience in helmand would see them adapt their chinooks to meet the operational requirements of the theater most notably by outfitting the aircraft with kevlar panels to provide extra armor protection to small arms fire this was important for ensuring the safety of the aircrews who often found themselves operating on the front line in support of either british or allied troops as author david reynolds highlights in his history of the campaign in one incident a chinook escorted by an apache helicopter landed to rescue injured paratroopers a crewman later described the night skies being illuminated by tracer fire as the pilot landed and later flew back to mount another rescue a similar scenario occurred on the 1st of october 2010 when a chinook from number 18 squadron was scrambled to conduct casualty evacuation and medical support missions for detachment at u.s rangers from the 1st battalion the 75th ranger regiment but made contact with taliban forces flying out from camp bastian the chinook with an apache helicopter in escort arrived over the battle area near the town of sangin and conducted the first medical support mission on completion of this the chinook's pilot squadron leader matthew roberts was informed that two rangers have been seriously wounded and were in need of immediate medical evacuation realising that this new task in would require him to fly directly into the front line squadron leader roberts requested that the escort and apache fly out and recon the proposed landing zone whilst his crew conducted a confidence check on the chinook's onboard weapon systems during this check it was discovered that the port side m134 minigun has suffered a stoppage that could not be fixed at that moment meaning that the whole left-hand side of the helicopter was rendered defenseless in addition an update was received informing the british air crew that one of the rangers has succumbed to the wounds they have sustained now the other was fighting for his life leading to squadron leader matthew roberts to make the decision to continue on with the evacuation despite the loss of one of his miniguns the squadron leader recalled afterwards when a weapon fails it then is a question of mission imperative whether you carry on or not but then you receive an update on the casualties and you don't think twice it just meant we had to try and keep the enemy on a right hand side as the chinook prepared to fly into the landing zone an unexpected lull took effect across the battlefield providing the british of what they believed was a window of opportunity to get the casualties out from that area however as the chinook began to make its approach into the lz taliban's small arms and machine gun fire began to hit its fuselage whilst enemy mortars hit in the aircraft's vicinity despite this squadron leader roberts kept the aircraft steady made landfall and lowered the rear ramp enabling the two american soldiers to be transferred onto the helicopter all the while under intense enemy fire squadron leader roberts continues we fly an amazing helicopter it took it well and nothing mission critical was hit the guys at the back were feeding me great situational info all the time which gave me the confidence to hold it all together once the casualties had been embarked the chinook got airborne again and exfiltrated out from the danger zone after which he began the return flight to camp bastian on arrival at the base the seriously wounded u.s ranger was moved to an on-site hospital and received lifesaving medical treatment for his wounds tragically the second u.s ranger will be confirmed as killed in action and will later be identified as sergeant first class lance vogler lance vogler had enlisted into the u.s army in may of 2001 and was posted to the 1st battalion the 75th ranger regiment in december of that year over the next 9 years he would rise to the rank of sergeant 1st class and be deployed a total of 12 times overseas including four tours to iraq and eight to afghanistan outside of the military he had a family of two children and his wife melissa who at the time of his passing was expecting their third child since the unfortunate events of 2010 the family of sergeant vogler have received a considerable amount of support from his brothers and extended family in the 75th ranger regiment with a former ranger stating over one third of his life since this nation was attacked on 9 11 was spent putting rounds down range and defending the freedom we all hold so dear sfc lance vogler went again and again to keep us free and to keep us safe people wonder sometimes why i'm so proud to have served in the regiment it's because i was blessed enough to serve with men like him you

Channel: Liveth For Evermore

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Keywords: British, Military, History, Education, Army, Air Force, Navy, Soldier, Sailor, Airmen, Liveth For Evermore, LFE, Special Forces, Chinook, Chinook Helicopter, U.S. Rangers, Royal Air Force, RAF, Afghanistan, Helmand, Operation Herrick, 75th Rangers, 75th Ranger Regiment, CASEVAC, British Chinook CASEVAC's U.S. Rangers | October 2010, U.S. Army, Apache Helicopter, Apache, Helmand Province, Sangin, Camp Bastion, British in Afghanistan, US Rangers, Rangers

Id: xdIGACFurxg

Length: 7min 54sec (474 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 04 2021