This is in the email he wrote, sending the Prince and Soldier dispatch (not at his site):
The American helicopters crews here in Mosul have been devastating the enemy. I have never seen anything like it. Very soon I'll be able to tell you more. The enemy is shooting back, and many of our helicopters are full of holes.
Two pilots got shot. One was wounded and is in the hospital; he'll be fine. The other got shot through the helmet and he's still flying around Mosul killing terrorists. I photographed his helmet. If not for these brave helicopter pilots, a lot more of our folks would be getting killed.
You might find it difficult to believe how many terrorists they are killing. It's hard for me to believe and I am right here in Mosul. They often wake me up shooting missiles and machineguns, yet the pilots have been very careful with fires and have inflicted practically no collateral damage.
Damage to the terrorists is truly severe, however. The gun footage is ugly. I am starting to wonder if this small group of pilots is a big part of the reason why attacks are so relatively low here.
I can hear them flying now. It's just matter of time until I hear the next missile launch. Vroooossshhhh...........BOOM.
#1
It's a pity that we will probably never see the footage, but I understand. There is no way to show it to the world that would not evoke horror, no matter how deserving the villains.
In WWII, I remember the tale of a pilot or passenger on a US aircraft that caught a Japanese ship unexpectedly and strafed it. At altitude, he was at first puzzled, because it looked like the ship was transporting lumber, with shattered boards and timbers flying up off the deck.
And then he realized that it was a troop transport. What he thought was flying lumber, was arms and legs.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.