Parade Magazine from Sunday's WaPoCapt. Andrea Ourada wears a 9mm Beretta semi-automatic pistol in a shoulder holster, wryly decorated with a pink “Princess” sticker. She also has good jewelry. The latest piece is a delicately wrought Combat Action Badge. The silver sword-and-wreath was awarded for direct-fire involvement as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot.
Ourada’s unit, the Army’s 2-147 Assault Helicopter Battalion, recently flew a combat-conditions mission unique in American history: The mission—involving two Blackhawks, each with two pilots and two door gunners—was carried out entirely by women, right down to the pre-mission crew flight briefings.
“It was exciting,” says Ourada, 29. “But it was also routine. We’re pilots—no problem. There isn’t any question about our abilities.”
Despite Pentagon regulations designed to limit their role in combat, more and more women are placing their lives in peril in service of their country. Ourada doesnÂ’t talk about it much, or even worry about it. The members of her outfit fly day and night, over all kinds of terrain. They get shot at a lot, and they shoot back: Several crew chiefs, who also serve as door gunners, are female.
The 2-147’s pilots and crew handle a variety of missions. Most of the flying is called “the Baghdad Shuffle” and involves moving troops, other American and Iraqi personnel, and small, “high-value” packages around the country.
Less commonly, Ourada’s unit will drop infantrymen in the countryside, then recover them later, after sweeps against Iraqi insurgents. Ourada recalls vividly the mission that earned her the Combat Action Badge: “I was on the aircraft controls. The lead aircraft came over the radio and said, ‘Taking fire, breaking left!’ Everybody in our cockpit started looking, asking, ‘Where is it, where is it?’”
Suddenly, Ourada spotted tracer fire, dazzlingly bright through her night-vision goggles. “I said, ‘Three o’clock, three o’clock, three o’clock!’ We were taking fire from multiple sources, and it was pretty intense. We were close enough that I could actually see enemy personnel with weapons.”
As Ourada identified the source, her gunner started pounding the insurgents with machine-gun fire. Though it felt longer, she says, the whole engagement probably lasted less than 10 seconds. “It’s an adrenaline rush that cannot be compared to anything else,” Ourada says. “It was almost like celebrating. How do you explain that?”
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