Reflection on Aftermath of Ambush

That night where Nichola, the night Nichola had been killed in the dark we were waiting for some support to come in and they had sent some Apaches on station and the Apache helicopters were circling overhead and a Taliban gunner started shooting at them with a 23mm anti-aircraft gun. It’s a pretty heavy gun about the same size as our LAV cannon shells. And it was firing and they were having a bit of a fight and they would shoot at the helicopters and the helicopter would shoot back a little bit and at one point the American pilot turned on all the lights in the aircraft and illuminated himself like a Christmas tree and the gunner on the ground started really pumping the rounds at him and he was circling and moving pretty fast trying to avoid stuff and jinking back and forth and the other helicopter was waiting for that to happen and he zoned in and took out the gun. And you know when you think about that, that’s a pretty ballsy move for that American helicopter pilot to do that. He made himself a target so that his partner could take out the gun. But when we needed them, those guys were on the money and then they were awesome. A-10 Thunderbolts, my favourite aircraft, they saved our bacon more than once. They call them the wart hog, they got the big cannon built around, the cockpit is built around the cannon, it’s actually, the whole front of the aircraft is built around the cannon they use and it was a huge deterrent to the Afghans, the Taliban when they were attacking. When those aircraft came over everything pretty much simmered right down. So, ya, the night May 17th is really strongly etched in my conscience and I’ll never forget and I had an opportunity this morning to see Nichola’s grave at the National Military Cemetery and it was good to see her again.