America's North Shore Journal

Distinguished Flying Cross

KSHB-TV

On June 2, 2007, Hammon left Baghdad en route to Balad Air Force base 42 miles north of Iraq’s capital. He had four crew members and six soldiers on board as the helicopter flew through the night sky.

With night vision goggles on, they crossed a palm grove on the Tigris River. Everything was going smoothly.

From below, tracers zipped by from all directions. Bullets from three different gun systems on the ground tore through the Black Hawk’s Achilles heel – its tail.

Without a tail rotor, steering rumbled. They were going down.

This was when the hours of training kicked in. It is when commanders screaming at you while you are training in the cockpit starts to make sense. Hammon needed to know how to react in stressful situations.

On that June day, he was being tested.

He knew the helicopter was going down, but he needed to get it far enough away from the enemy on the ground. He and the co-pilot spotted a waterway and aimed toward the other side.

“We needed a barrier between us and them to slow their tracking of us,” Hammon said.

He gripped the shuddering controls and landed the helicopter.

Another crew member quickly went to work getting rid of sensitive materials – radio frequencies, maps.

Hammon and the 10 people he was responsible for were safe.

Via Argghhh! and little else. Where is the Army news release? Where are the stories anyplace but Kansas?