VIP helo crews ready at a moment’s notice

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First Sgt. Marvin Meeks, 41, of El Dorado, Ark., checks the tail on a Black Hawk on Sunday after dropping off Gen. David Petraeus, senior American commander in Iraq, at Baghdad International Airport. Crews that fly VIPs like Petraeus keep the helicopters ready to go at a moment's notice.


VIP helo crews ready at a moment’s notice
By James Warden, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Tuesday, February 26, 2008

BAGHDAD — The rotors are turning, but the Black Hawks aren’t going anywhere for the moment.

Crews in the two helicopters wait patiently, one minute, then another. A door gunner drums his fingers on a windowsill, but that’s the only sign of anxiousness. Waiting is just another part of the job for these two crews.

After all, they can’t just leave behind the senior American commander in Iraq.

This platoon-sized group with Company A, 5th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment, based out of Wiesbaden and Katterbach, Germany, has one mission in Iraq: Move VIPs. In Army parlance they’re called a Command Aviation Company, or “CAC.” The group primarily serves Gen. David Petraeus and Multi-National Corps — Iraq commander Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III.

Celebrity doesn’t much impress these fliers, although some of them are still a bit miffed that they didn’t get to move around the NFL cheerleaders who visited Iraq. Most of them had the same job back in Germany. They’ve flown former president George H.W. Bush, among other big names.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52818