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See also: For Your Benefit

2 pilots from 25th
rescued in Iraq

Army OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter pilots Greg Crow and Chad Beck -- Chief Warrant Officers with the 1st Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division -- were rescued in an intricate mission on Oct. 16 in Iraq.

The Army said their Kiowa helicopter flew into another one from the 25th Division, killing Capt. Christopher B. Johnson and Chief Warrant Officer William I. Brennan near Baghdad.

Capt. Ryan Welch, an AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter pilot, and his gunner, Chief Warrant Officer Justin Taylor, were on a reconnaissance mission over southern Baghdad for the 1st Cavalry Division when they received a cry for help over the radio.

The second call for help said two other pilots had been killed in action; Beck and Crow were both injured and trying to make their way to a defensible position.

When the Apache flew over the crash site, Welch spotted a fire that turned out to be the OH-58 Kiowa. Welch landed his Apache about 330 feet from the crash site. Armed with his 9 mm pistol and an M4 carbine rifle, he set out to collect the downed pilots.

One of the pilots could no longer walk, and both were cut up. It took about 10 minutes for Welch and the two pilots to make their way back to the Apache. Now there were four personnel to get out and only two seats in the Apache.

Welch decided that the injured Crow would take the seat, while he and Beck attached themselves to the outside of the helicopter. They took nylon straps hanging from their flight vests, attached to a carabiner and secured the straps to handholds on the copter. The aircraft then flew off with the two attached to the outside.

At 90 mph, the helicopter flew 12 miles to Forward Operating Base Falcon, the closest base with a combat support hospital.

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Members of the 25th Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team will start orienting its replacement -- the 116th Brigade Combat Team from the Idaho National Guard -- to their mission in Iraq.

Capt. Bill Coppernoll, 1st Infantry Division spokesman in Tikrit, said the 4,500 members from Schofield Barracks will begin what the Army calls the "relief in place" process in late December, in which soldiers from both units work side by side so that the replacement soldiers can get acclimated. "This is a deliberate process that takes place over a couple weeks," Coppernoll said.

Coppernoll said while a few 25th Division soldiers may leave in late December, he didn't expect the change of authority from the 25th Infantry Division to the Idaho National Guard to occur until January -- about the time the 25th Infantry Division was scheduled to leave Iraq. It will have been there for nearly a year at that point under the command of the 1st Infantry Division.

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Lt. Gen. James Dubik, who commanded the 25th Infantry Division in November 2000, assumed command of Fort Lewis and I Corps and its more than 20,000 active-duty soldiers from Lt. Gen. Edward Soriano last week. Soriano, who is the highest-ranking Filipino-American officer and the first Filipino American to become a general, was chosen to lead Fort Lewis in August 2002. Dubik headed the 25th from November 2000 to July 2002. The Army hasn't announced Soriano's new assignment or his retirement plans.

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Col. Peter S. Pawling, commander of the Hawaii Air National Guard's 154th Wing, received his first star as a brigadier general yesterday. Pawling assumed command of the 154th on Oct. 1, 2003. The wing is the largest organization of the Hawaii Air Guard with 1,900 officers and airmen. The unit flies three different types of aircraft -- F-15 Eagle jet fighters, C-130 Hercules cargo planes and KC-135 jet stratotankers.

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