Steve Campbell
Elite Veteran
Location: Baton Rouge, LA
| I work occasionally for the State Department, along with quite a few former spec-ops types. One of them, an ex-Delta guy, had a video that was too neat. It was a training op; an MH-47 was sitting in water somewhere, spooled up with the ramp partially down, and suddenly you see two small rubber boats, with four or five decked-out warriors in each one, going like hell for the rear of the bird. Just before they get to it, the ramp drops into the water, and they run those boats right up into the cargo bay.
As soon as the last one is in, the ship pulls pitch and lurches off. It seems to be struggling, then the back end drops almost straight down and a BUNCH of water, and one of the boats with all hands still aboard, comes pouring out the back. It was literally raining dudes, weapons, and gear. Two more guys come tumbling out as the pilots struggle to get the machine back under control, which they do, and fly out of the picture.
They only fell 20 feet or so, but from that height water is hard as concrete. Nobody was seriously hurt, but they wrote off a bunch of equipment. The guy who was showing us this had been in the first boat and managed to grab a stanchion on his way out when the bird tipped back. He said he was literally hanging by one arm and watched his pals take a dump. He broke his wrist when the ship went back to horizontal and he fell from the side of the cargo bay.
All in all, it was funny as hell. Now, before you think me crass, ya gotta understand that people who have been in similar snafus find this sort of clusterf*#k very amusing. My Ranger buddies laughed at me the day I was halfway down a 50 foot rappel (wearing a full ruck and assorted goodies) when the hydraulics in the Huey puked. I only free fell about ten feet, but I hit like a ton of bricks. As I lay there trying to get my wind back, two weisenheimers who had already gotten down called out "Seven point five!" "Nah, it was only a six!"
Busting your ass during military training is a rite of passage. If you can't laugh at other's misfortune, ya got no soul... |
