Private Raitt goes flying!

Nick here..



If you didn't already know, I joined the Utah Army National Guard as soon as I turned 18. Unfortunately because of my cancer I was not able to go to boot camp as planned in August. Hopefully I will be able to go this coming summer and be an official soldier in the Army. I cant wait to have a real uniform and be able to work on the Apache helicopter.

Luckily, I have some really cool Sergeants who were able to pull some strings and arrange a helicopter flight in a Blackhawk. They told me anytime I was feeling good enough there would be a chopper waiting for me. So finally the date was set and today I was able to sit in the Blackhawk as would a Crewchief would. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done and cannot wait for my next flight, whenever it might be (since I WILL be a helicopter pilot one day).

The 2 hour training flight started off with some pre-takeoff checks on the chopper, then we flew over to another little Army station and picked up a load that we carried underneath the chopper with a rope and chain to practice maneuvering with a load. The pilots did really good and I was amazed with their skill and precision. We then did some landings on mountain tops and ridges to practice landing with different winds and terrain. But the best part of the whole flight was the open terrain flying, because it involved pretty good speeds and I could not believe the degree of bank in a turn that the Blackhawk was able to do. It was awesome! We would fly pretty low through canyons and it was the coolest feeling. We happened to fly over this cowboy guy who was riding his horse, which I thought to be weird cause I believe we were still over government property, and we tried not to fly directly over him but he still decided to give us the finger. If only there was a 50 caliber mounted in front of me like there can be, I would have made him put his finger away real quick. HA just kidding. He was just jealous.

Well.. I would just like to lastly say that I had one of the coolest days today. And I would like thank Sergeant Sanchez, Sergeant Wilkinson and Captain Fontineau (sp?) for getting the flight arranged for me. It was a day I will never forget. Also, my pilots Scott and Kent who I think have me convinced that becoming a Warrant Officer is the way to go, and Sergeant Haywood (I believe that was his name, if not, I blame the chemo for memory loss) who was the Crewchief and got me all set up for flight. Last but not least, I want to thank my Mom and especially my Grandma for getting this whole thing started. I felt like a KING up there. Those pilots have it made!