Dustoff

Company C, 3rd General Support Aviation Battalion, 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, is the only medevac company in Afghanistan. Divided into four platoons, the "All American Dustoff" company is based at forward operations bases in the eastern and southern portions of Afghanistan.

When ever the call goes out, it comes to them.

They've hoisted wounded soldiers using a winch in the helicopter and braved enemy fire several times. The pilots, medics and crew chiefs have a single minded mentality... save the patient.

I watched Wednesday as 1st Sgt. Dean Bissey rotated between two patients -- a contractor that fell 12 feet off a ladder and an Afghan that was shot in the leg. Kneeling in the back of the Black Hawk, he hovered over both checking vital signs. He finally left their side when they got to the ER in Bagram.

A Special Forces medic told me once that soldiers will fight hard if they know medical care is close by. I think Dustoff proves this point. The paratroopers fighting in Afghanistan know that no matter what, the pilots, medics and crew chiefs in Company C are coming to get them.

More Humvee TV: Afghanistan

Kids Love to Pose

It seems that no matter what country your in kids love to ham it up for the camera.

Me in the Khost-Gardez Pass

A Good Ford Truck Ad

I thought this would make a good Ford truck ad, because how the Afghan Army beats the shit out of their trucks. Actually Toyota should make truck commercial here since most Afghans that drive trucks drive Toyota Hiluxs. Those trucks are beat to death and they just keep going. It is crazy to see an Afghan drive a Hilux down a Wadi, a dry river bed.

Humvee TV: Afghanistan

The paratroopers in Afghanistan travel in the same armored Humvees as the soldiers in Iraq.
The doors are heavy and resemble vault doors. The windows are several inches thick and are never open. The Humvees, especially in Iraq, are a little bubble of safety. A place where the troopers can shut out the danger. But the feeling is different in Afghanistan. While there is a roadside bomb threat here, when you finally open the heavy door of the Humvee you don't have that same sense of foreboding. It doesn't feel like you are exposing yourself as much.
Maybe it is the picturesque mountains or the desolate patches of gravel desert between the villages instead of the garbage choked streets of Baghdad. It could be the happy greetings of the children and men when you roll into a village instead of the sideways glances or the downright hateful looks we got in the Bayji market in February.
Either way, Afghanistan really has a different vibe.

To see the images from Humvee TV: Iraq, click here.

Blackwater Air Drop

The first story I shot in Afghanistan was Blackwater Aviation air drops. They used small cargo planes and $50 tarp parachutes to make drops of food and ammo to paratroopers along the Pakistan border. As we made our approach to the drop zone we flew only 50 feet off the ground going with the flow of the mountains. Seconds before they drop they climb to 150 feet and make the drop. Just as I was trying to take a picture of the deployed parachutes the plane jerked up and everyone hit the floor and I missed my shot. I just ended with shot of Col. Peterman falling in front of me and a couple shots of the floor. While we were laying on the floor the Blackwater crew member told me that we were shot at so the pilot took an evasive move.