Dude, that has to be one of the single, most-cool thing I have done being a rotor-head. I have been on everything from 12 person pinpoint assaults to (literally) a dude's backyard, as well as 500 person man-drives to flush out entire cells of insurgents. Even done a Medevec mission or two because we were closer.

I think the funniest and most memorable pick-up I have been on was after a pin-point assault to a certain persons Qalat and they called for exfil early just before detonating a rather large weapons cache which, to date, is one of the biggest found in the history of the area. We were headed to the original grid when the JTAC called in an audible in the air. It sort of went like this:

"Hey guys, I don't think we'll need to mark the LZ."

"Oh really?? Its (&^%ing dark out here! I think we'll need some type of illum."

"give it 10 seconds, and tell me if you still want the illum"

"Uh, ok. No Problem."

While holding at the RP, I saw the biggest flash and plume of smoke and that I have ever seen under the tubes. BOOM! Cool. Just cool.

"Hey (JTAC), I'm guessing that was it?!"

"Yes, Sir. Land Stag-Left, 200m north, landing direction west."

"....3 minutes."

Since then, nothing else has come close.

I maintain that it is a different war at 200AGL than it is at the flight levels. I am pretty confident in saying that we have seen more in your face "combat" on a day to day basis than your run of the mill jet driver. Driving a Helo is the epitome of awesome, period. The war in Afghanistan is being fought and won by rotor-drivers from all the services. Anyone that says different can come on down from the flight levels and get dirty with us while taking RPK fire and see if their tune changes.