The hits keep coming, Depression(part 3)

Note: all events talked about below are public knowledge however I have left some information out to not direct attention to some people or units.


 I have been in 2 different career fields for over 20 years each, I have enjoyed both of them but after the 20-year mark, it just isn't the same. I was in the military aviation industry for 23 years, starting in the Army and then becoming a contractor. Next is my EMS career which I started while working on aircraft. There have been countless peaks and valleys in both fields, times when I thought I would do this or that forever, and then times when I just wanted to walk away. 


I started my military aviation career in 1989, I joined the service, went to Germany, and with a short break thrown in there I remained in Germany until 1998. I came to Hunter Army Airfield in Ga in Dec '98 and stayed until 2013. I worked for a special operations unit and made some great friends along the way. I was working in the hangar on 9/11(my birthday) and I watched the towers fall on a TV in the inspector's office. There was an eerie feeling(especially for someone who was raised and has worked in aviation) to see no aircraft in the skies for days. There wasn't one plane, not one helicopter to be seen anywhere. There were feelings of anger, loss, and love for our country. From that day on I never wanted to celebrate my birthday, to me it is just not a day to celebrate. So many lives were lost that day, and so many families can no longer celebrate anything with their family members so why should I?


While I was working at the hangar the young soldiers were always talking about going overseas to get involved in the war on terror. As someone who has been involved with that, I told them that they needed to be thankful that they were still in the states where it was safer. Unfortunately, they were eventually deployed to Afghanistan, and in 2005 they had a catastrophic crash killing several flight crewmembers as well as many other military members. These crewmembers were friends of ours, they were people that I flew with on numerous occasions as well. There was no worse feeling than seeing the memorial they made for these soldiers with boots, helmets, weapons, and nvg's. You will never forget that sight and you will never ever forget the sound of taps being played. 


In 2006 we were getting ready to take a helicopter to the wash rack when one of our favorite pilots stopped by to joke around and talk with us before he left for a flight to Ft Rucker. Mike Wright was a smart man with a great sense of humor, and he always had us laughing. Mike also respected us contractors, he looked out for us because he knew what an asset we were to him as the maintenance officer and the unit. After several hours went by our site supervisor came out and told us all to come to the hangar, we joked about being in trouble what came next we never would have never imagined. Our supervisor told us that the helicopter that Mike was in had crashed, Mike had been killed along with 2 other crewmembers and a passenger that was on board. What also made this worse was that my EMS partner at the time was married to Mike's daughter. So not only did I have feelings of sadness at the hangar, but I had it on my unit at night with my partner. 


One early January morning in 2014 I was clearing from the hospital ER and I was headed to the EMS station to get some supplies. I heard a call go out of a mutual aid call for a helicopter crash on the military airfield. The initial unit had not replied to dispatch, since I was already on the road and not far from that call I immediately responded. As I was going down the main road that passes the approach end of the runway on the airfield I could see the helicopter on the ground resting on its right side. I got on post, followed a couple MP's that were also responding, and made it to the crash site. Once on scene, I saw this was one of the helicopters that belonged to the unit I worked for.  I went to the medic who was in charge of the scene and got my assignment from him. The co-pilot died on the scene, the crew chief was severely wounded and the pilot was transported by my unit. I didn't personally know these guys but they were a part of the unit, they were brothers and that hurts when you lose a brother. 


Next post I will talk about my EMS career and some of the associated sadness within...


The chaos persists, but so do I....




 

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