The story of army aviation in operation enduring freedom is painted across the skies of Afghanistan, filled with accounts of endless hours of troop transport, attack and assault, medevac and more.
Today, it's a tale of drawdown in the face of continuing missions "Average Op tempo for all our aircraft this month is 68, that's down from height of the fighting season back in July,"
Here In Bagram, Chief William Butler Is With 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, task force falcon "to put in perspective, 10th CAB's flown for about 8 ½, 9 months. We've flown just over 100,000 hours" and while THE op tempo is less, butler says less is relative. Blackhawks, Apaches, Kiowa's, Chinooks, all are still critical to the fight, "We turned over 300 engines from green tag to yellow tag and put aback in airplanes what that means is, not that they were bad when we got them, they weren't producing 100% power"
And power, in the demanding terrain of Afghanistan, means safety. Butler has spent a career working army aviation.. As a test pilot, logistician and currently as brigade maintenance officer..
In his opinion, these soldiers, make all the difference."They work, they eat, they work out, they sleep, they come back to work and they like it and they're learning a lot."
What they're also learning are the demands of retrograde 10th cab has processed over a hundred million dollars worth of air parts for return with more on the way. According to butler, it's a new chapter in an enduring story.
Gail McCabe, Afghanistan
Related Documents:
Enduring Story Transcript (PDF) [PDF]
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