AIR CAV DAYS IN GERMANY: THE COLD WAR ADVENTURES OF REV

Chapter 9 THE APACHES HAVE THEIR HOMECOMING

Revv had just walked out of his room on his way to morning formation when Wahoo called out to him. "Hahy Revv!" Wahoo was the barrack's resident smart ass and his jokes were only understood half of the time due to his mumbling and thick Massachusetts accent. He stood five foot eight, had blonde hair, and Irish Green eyes that sparkled with intelligence and mirth. "Hey man. What's up?" "Chahk thahs ouht." Wahoo pointed out a tall window in the stairwell that looked out to the main gate. A group of around one hundred local Germans were staging a protest outside of the gate. A smartly dressed women stood out as moved among the protestors keeping their cups filled with fresh coffee. "At least it looks peaceful," commented Revv. "Yah, mahst ohrganahzed prohtast ahve ehvah seen." It was true. The Germans held signs that were perfectly lettered and they seemed to be standing almost in a military formation. A slender man with a long beard wearing brown leather pants was leading the protestors in some sort of chants that they couldn't hear. "C'mon dude. Were gonna be late for first formation," said Revv heading down the stairs.

Unknown to the soldiers, a secret plan had been worked out in Headquarters last week. This morning the UH-60 Blackhawk unit would take off from Wiesbaden Air Base, fly a circuitous route, and land all of their helicopters at another Army Airfield about 30 miles away. A few hours later the pilots of the Cav would fly in from Bremerhaven with their eighteen Apaches. The ruse would work for a couple of weeks until the German reporters would finally figure out what had happened. By then, it would be too late for the Germans to really do anything except whine about the arrival of the Apaches.

The troop stood to attention in formation when the First Sergeant took charge. "PAHRADE REST!" The troop sharply changed position in unison. Satisfied, the First Sergeant continued, "Stay away from the protestors." Revv raised his hand. The First Sergeant refrained from rolling his eyes. "Yes, Revv?" "Even if they are cute?" Snickers broke out among the soldiers. "Revv. Front leaning rest now." Revv dropped into the push up position and was left there until the First Sergeant finished his announcement. The First Sergeant continued, "Saturday there was an unfortunate incident when a soldier gave an unauthorized interview during the helicopter delivery. He said some things that embarrassed the United States, the Army, and the command." He paused to let the statement sink in and then pointed at the gate before continuing, "Along with these protests, the Wiesbaden Mayor delivered an official letter of protest to the Brigade Commander stating the city's opposition to the stationing of Apaches here. Today, in a simple ruse, our crews will fly in our Apaches exactly two hours after the 30 Blackhawks stationed here take off. The Blackhawks will remain at Mainz Finthin indefinitely. Avoid talking to any locals about our total number of helicopters or our mission. If they ask you where the Blackhawks went, answer, 'What Blackhawks?' UNDERSTOOD!" "Hoo Ahh First Sergeant." The troop yelled out in unison.

Revv was still in the front leaning rest position. Despite the cold weather, sweat drops had formed on his forehead and his arms were starting to quiver from the strain. Inside of his head he contemplated how Hoo Ahh could be used as an affirmative answer, a verb, noun, adjective, or just about anywhere in the English language. The meaningless uncomprehensible phrase was just as usable as the word fuck. Just a little more appropriate. "Revv, recover." In one swift movement Revv pulled his feet forward and resumed the position of parade rest. "Troop attention." They snapped to attention as one unit. "Platoon Sergeants take charge." With a salute the First Sergeant turned the soldiers over to their sergeants and began their work day.

This simple ruse was so secret that the commander's did not let the soldiers or spouses watch the Apaches land. Everything had to look normal. No extra attention, no patriotic music coming out of the white speakers, just another normal day at the airfield. Without ceremony, the Apaches landed and were quickly towed into the empty hangars.

Two hours later the squadron's pilots and aeroscouts reported to the Squadron HQ for a secret level meeting. At the meeting they received their training plan along with the locations of their secret battle positions somewhere east of Wiesbaden where they would fight the Soviets and East Germans. To their dismay, they learned it was die in place mission. Stop the Russkies at all costs. Let the rest of Germany mobilize. Now the fun began.

Having memorized their battle positions and practiced their battle drills before the arrival of the Apaches the scout crews were ready. Training intensified now that they could practice battle drills with the Apaches. In addition to the real world sites there were two low level helicopter training areas within twenty miles of the base. In these sites they could land anywhere and fly with their skids skimming off of the tree tops.

On the rare days when Revv and Wild Man could fly single ship training missions they would have the Armed Forces Network AM radio station tuned up on their Automatic Direction Finder Navigational Aid. When The Cult or Guns and Roses came on the radio one of them would yell, "Turn it up!" Whoever was flying would dive down into the trees and fly Nap of the Earth flight. Revv loved those days. The sensation of the trees rushing by with the rotor system below the tree tops. Occasionally Wild Man would light up a cigarette and kick his foot up the dash while Revv flew. Revv could not believe he was actually getting paid to do this. There was no feeling like it in the world.

Night vision goggle missions gave them the opportunity to harass a pack of wild boars that lived in the northern training area. The thick German forests hid the boars during the day, but at night they came out to search for food in the fields. "Those things are big time huge!" Revv exclaimed the first time he saw the boars. "Hell'uva a lot bigger than back home," replied Wild Man diving to chase one. "Holy shit! You just ran him head first into a tree!" "Is he still moving?" "Yah, he's getting up." "Dang it! We coulda taken him home for dinner." "Probably would have over grossed the bird." Wild Man smiled, "You'all could walk home from here while I carried the pig." Revv didn't return the smile; he did not want to encourage this idea.