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Calling for Cellphones
Two CH-47F Chi- nook helicopters from the 227th Avia- tion Regiment carry sling loads of equip- ment near Camp Taji, Iraq, in 2010.
Chinooks Fly ‘All Night Long’
C
hinook helicopters with B Com- pany, 2nd General Support Aviation Battalion, the last Chinook unit left
in Iraq as the Army draws down opera- tions there, fl ew more than 1,100 hours moving personnel and cargo in October. The Chinook is a large tandem-rotor helicopter with a rotor diameter of 60 feet. It is the Army’s go-to heavy-lift heli- copter and equipment transporter. It can transport 33 servicemembers and their gear, or three pallets of cargo, or a sling load (cargo suspended below the aircraft). The aircraft also can support a combina- tion of those three, up to 13 short tons.
IMAGES: ABOVE, SGT. ALUN THOMAS, USA; RIGHT, SHUTTERSTOCK Because Chinooks are more than 98 feet
long, pilots rely heavily on fl ight engineers who serve as the eyes in the rear of the air- craft and the muscle that handles cargo. “We are kind of like a moving company,”
says Army Sgt. Andrew Anderson, fl ight engineer with the 211th Aviation Regiment. “The pilots are the drivers, and we are the muscle in the back getting it all done.” Chinooks typically are fl own during the nighttime hours to capitalize on the additional protection off ered by darkness. As a result, the 211th adopted the motto “All Night Long” from the title of a popu- lar Lionel Richie song.
phones by Jan. 31 to: Cell Phones for Sol- diers, c/o ReCellular, 2555 Bishop Circle W., Dexter, MI 48130. The company accepts phone accessories and batter- ies, too, though these can be discarded to save on shipping costs. For more informa- tion, visit
www.moaa .org/cellsforsoldiers or email moaacellphones
4soldiers@gmail.com.
MOAA’s Auxiliary Member Advisory Com- mittee has collected more than 14,000 cellphones toward its goal of 16,667 phones, worth 1 million minutes of calling-card time for servicemembers abroad. Help the com- mittee’s initiative with Cell Phones for Soldiers by sending your used
JANUARY 2012 MILITARY OFFICER 21
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