Saturday, May 14, 2011

KCR: Hellfire by Ed Macy (non-fiction, novel, war, Afghanistan, helicopter)

UK Army Air Corps Westland Apache WAH-64D Long...Image via Wikipedia
Hellfire is an autobiographical novel about a guy in the British Army Air Corp (i.e. attack helicopters) who basically got invalidated out of the Paras (paratroopers, British version of our "Rangers") and went to helicopter training instead. He eventually transitioned to Apaches (the British version has a 30% stronger engine and thus flies a lot better) and went on variety of missions in Afghanistan where the Apache had proven invaluable against Taliban forces both as top-escort and "intimate support" roles. He described in detail some of the missions, including chasing down a sniper team and engaged an anti-aircraft gun that came close to hitting him, among others.

Half of the book is about his journey up to that point, including being among the first in British Army to qualify in Apaches, and therefore literally "wrote the book" on operational doctrines, procedures, and whatnot. The other half is his experience in Afghanistan.

If you read Andy McNab or some of the other Brits in war you should like the style. There are no punches pulled. Politicians are treated with disdain. Some even told them they are NOT there to shoot any body, and ROE basically had one hand tied behind their back as they are only allowed to shoot when they can clearly identify the shooter or shooting location.

If you like this sort of autobiographical book by warriors it is definitely worth a read.




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