Post by Paddy by Grace on Jun 4, 2009 8:44:26 GMT -7
June 3, 2009
SK
Would like to share an interesting event that occurred about about three months ago: I was on my farm in central Texas at the end of the day on a Saturday when I saw 6 OH58D Kiowa helicopters in echelon right formation over my farm. They caught my attention because they had infrared radar pods on top of the rotors. The were about 1000 feet AGL and appeared to be on approach to our local airport about 5 miles away. Indeed they were, because when I drove by the airport on my way to town I saw these same choppers on the tarmac. I turned into the small airport go get a closer look and saw a WO2 pilot at the trash dumpster and decided to ask some questions.
The pilot had a 75th Ranger Bn combat patch on his uniform and that was an good ice breaker since I am a former Ranger and SF Solder.I ask to see the choppers and ask what they were doing in central Texas. The pilot said that the 6 choppers had been upgraded with state of the art surveillance equipment at Ft. Bragg NC and were being ferried to Ft. Lewis WA. That seemed strange - why not retrofit at Lewis?Why Bragg? Was this a Special Ops bird that could only be retrofitted at Bragg? I did not openly ask these questions but rather ask about the combat function of the chopper as outfitted. The pilot stated that these were infrared radar equipped hunter-killer birds to support ground troops. I replied; "you mean for counter insurgency operations?" and he confirmed my interpretation. I ask if he had heard that two brigades had been redeployed for domestic US operations and he got real quiet - said he was not aware of it. I replied that this was published in the Army Times. I did not dig any deeper with him. I am telling you this because of what both you and Hawk have stated about activity in the Pacific Northwest - these six counter-insurgency birds were headed to Lewis. Lewis has a Ranger Battalion and an SF Group and maybe this is to support these units or maybe it is just a normal upgrade for their role in the Air Cavalry Regiment based at Lewis to which they are assigned.
However the connection to Ft. Bragg and the quiet disconnected response of the pilot left me questioning what was the real application of these aircraft. I later researched and discovered that these same model choppers are used in National Guard units in 32 states that are specifically designated for drug interdiction in CONUS. These units are called Reconnaissance and Aerial Interdiction Detachments (RAID) wikipedia.org/wiki/OH-58_Kiowa.
Thank you for speaking the truth.
With great respect, S.K.
SK
Would like to share an interesting event that occurred about about three months ago: I was on my farm in central Texas at the end of the day on a Saturday when I saw 6 OH58D Kiowa helicopters in echelon right formation over my farm. They caught my attention because they had infrared radar pods on top of the rotors. The were about 1000 feet AGL and appeared to be on approach to our local airport about 5 miles away. Indeed they were, because when I drove by the airport on my way to town I saw these same choppers on the tarmac. I turned into the small airport go get a closer look and saw a WO2 pilot at the trash dumpster and decided to ask some questions.
The pilot had a 75th Ranger Bn combat patch on his uniform and that was an good ice breaker since I am a former Ranger and SF Solder.I ask to see the choppers and ask what they were doing in central Texas. The pilot said that the 6 choppers had been upgraded with state of the art surveillance equipment at Ft. Bragg NC and were being ferried to Ft. Lewis WA. That seemed strange - why not retrofit at Lewis?Why Bragg? Was this a Special Ops bird that could only be retrofitted at Bragg? I did not openly ask these questions but rather ask about the combat function of the chopper as outfitted. The pilot stated that these were infrared radar equipped hunter-killer birds to support ground troops. I replied; "you mean for counter insurgency operations?" and he confirmed my interpretation. I ask if he had heard that two brigades had been redeployed for domestic US operations and he got real quiet - said he was not aware of it. I replied that this was published in the Army Times. I did not dig any deeper with him. I am telling you this because of what both you and Hawk have stated about activity in the Pacific Northwest - these six counter-insurgency birds were headed to Lewis. Lewis has a Ranger Battalion and an SF Group and maybe this is to support these units or maybe it is just a normal upgrade for their role in the Air Cavalry Regiment based at Lewis to which they are assigned.
However the connection to Ft. Bragg and the quiet disconnected response of the pilot left me questioning what was the real application of these aircraft. I later researched and discovered that these same model choppers are used in National Guard units in 32 states that are specifically designated for drug interdiction in CONUS. These units are called Reconnaissance and Aerial Interdiction Detachments (RAID) wikipedia.org/wiki/OH-58_Kiowa.
Thank you for speaking the truth.
With great respect, S.K.