Soldiers fire from the skies at Rodriguez Range

Pfc. Frank Pinguelo, of the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Aviation Regiment, attacks targets from a Black Hawk helicopter Thursday at Rodriguez Range, South Korea. Black Hawk, Chinook and Apache helicopter gunners all had their chance to fire last week at the 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade's gunnery practice. The aviators also trained for ground convoy operations.


Soldiers fire from the skies at Rodriguez Range
By Erik Slavin, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, January 27, 2008

RODRIGUEZ RANGE, South Korea — Spc. Jonathan Basler likens helicopter gunnery in January to flying into a frozen hurricane.

The doors on each side of the Black Hawk are open so gunners can hit the targets that lie 50 to 100 feet below them.

For a passenger, the wind whips at first, and then feels more like a constant, solid object pressing against the body.

But unless Army scientists can create a miniature woolly mammoth and train it to fire a machine gun, it’s up to soldiers clad in gas masks and layers of cotton and synthetics to eliminate enemy threats from the air.

“When your face goes numb and you can’t feel your hands — beautiful,” said a smiling Basler, a Cincinnati native with the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Aviation Regiment’s Bravo Company.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51946