U.S. copter downed; 2 pilots captured

CENTRAL IRAQ — Advanced U.S Army Apache Longbow helicopters making their first large-scale strike deep in Iraq yesterday cut the operation short in the face of intense fire from anti-aircraft guns, rocket-propelled grenades and rifles, according to officers and pilots. One of the AH-64Ds went down in a farmer's field and its two pilots were captured.

The Pentagon yesterday identified two helicopter pilots taken prisoner by Iraqi forces after their AH-64D Apache Longbow gunship went down during heavy fighting against the Iraqi Republican Guard's Medina Division near Karbala.

The pilots are Ronald D. Young Jr., 26, of Lithia Springs, Ga., and David S. Williams, 30, of Orlando, defense officials said. Both are Army chief warrant officers assigned to the Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division.

First listed as missing

The Pentagon listed the pilots as missing in action throughout much of the day, even after satellite network Al-Jazeera aired footage of both men in their flight suits, looking dazed but unharmed. One Pentagon source indicated, however, that their status would soon be changed to prisoner of war.

Iraqi television also broadcast pictures of the downed helicopter surrounded by a mob of Iraqis brandishing rifles and celebrating. While it was not clear whether the aircraft was shot down or landed because of a maintenance failure, more than a dozen other Longbows took heavy fire during the battle and had to turn back.

The attack in pre-dawn darkness by a formation of Longbows was aimed at tanks and other weapons of President Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard around Karbala, south of Baghdad. Col. William Wolf, commander of the Army's 11th Aviation Regiment, said the air assault crippled four or five Iraqi tanks and several light vehicles.

But pilots said they were forced to abandon most of their targets because of a curtain of fire that rose from streets, roofs and back yards, hitting nearly all their aircraft. U.S. defense officials in Washington, D.C., said the mission involved 30 to 40 Apaches.

"It was coming from all directions, I got shot front, back, left and right," said pilot Bob Duffney, 41, a chief warrant officer 4 from Springfield, Mass., who flew combat helicopters in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. "In Desert Storm, we didn't have a firefight like this."

Later in the day, Iraqi television aired footage of two men it identified as the pilots of the downed Longbow. The two men, dressed in military flight suits, did not speak and appeared to be uninjured. The footage also showed their aircraft — still bearing missiles and appearing to be largely intact — on the ground surrounded by Iraqis waving rifles. It was not known whether the helicopter was shot down or suffered mechanical difficulties.

The $20 million Longbows, the new stars of the Army's helicopter fleet, have been depicted as a superweapon against Iraqi armor. They have infrared night-vision capability and carry radar-programmed Hellfire missiles that pilots "fire and forget" because there is no need for attacking helicopters to remain locked on to a target. The Hellfires can hit targets five miles away.

But yesterday's engagement showed the weapons systems designed for conventional war can be vulnerable to unconventional tactics.

"The Longbow is designed for going after armor and high-tech air defense," said one of the pilots, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Steven Kilgore, 34, of Gary, Ind. These weapons can be detected through radar and other sensor systems. But with low-tech air defense, he said, "until they start firing, you don't know they're there."

Regiment officers said it appeared most of the damaged helicopters could be repaired. But, later yesterday, three CH-47 Chinook helicopters transporting spare parts from Kuwait were fired on near the Apache base in Iraq and had to jettison their loads.

A group of the helicopters took off from a makeshift base south of Baghdad under cover of darkness to engage Republican Guard units. Air Force warplanes and Army artillery had already pounded the target area in an effort to knock out Iraqi artillery.

A U.S. defense official said the helicopters were acting on good intelligence and were using infrared cameras to detect body heat and the heat signatures of tanks.

When the Longbows reached the target zone, U.S. pilots said, they came under a dizzying array of fire. Some was from Iraqi troops using conventional anti-aircraft artillery. But some was from individuals firing AK-47 rifles or rocket-propelled grenades into the sky. Much of it rose from tree-lined suburban streets and back yards.

"They definitely had their air defense arrayed in different zones. That's what we were fighting against, plus some small arms," said pilot Brian Stewman, 36, a chief warrant officer 4 from Palestine, Ark.

"At first, we were reluctant" to fire back, said Stewman. "But after you get (hit) a few times, you get less reluctant." Pilots said they responded with bursts from 30-mm cannons and 4-foot-long rockets.

The barrage of bullets was shocking both to seasoned Army pilots and combat newcomers. Lt. Carrie Bruhl, 26, a co-pilot and gunner who was seeing her first fighting, said the sound of bullets hitting "sounds like a sledgehammer. ... The first round that came in, I couldn't feel my legs." When her helicopter returned to base at about 2:30 a.m., the Oceanside, Calif., native said the first thing she did was "make sure my legs were still working."

Another pilot who was experiencing combat for the first time had a different recollection of the gunfire hitting his aircraft. "As long as I live, I'll never forget that sound: tink-tink-tink," said the pilot, Capt. Chad Lewis, 30, of Rolla, Mo. "There were trees and houses. People were firing everywhere."

Apache information under wraps

The defense official in Washington, D.C., refused to say how many Apaches might have been put out of commission for fear of giving the Iraqis vital battle information, but he acknowledged they absorbed heavy fire. "It just goes to show you, when they built these helicopters, they were built to take fire," the official said.

The Iraqi government publicized the loss of the helicopter as a victory of guerrilla tenacity. Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf told reporters at a Baghdad news conference: "Farmers shot down two Apaches." Iraq has yet to produce pictures of a second helicopter and U.S. officials have not announced the loss of another craft.

In Washington, a Pentagon official said no distress or location signals had been received from the downed Longbow's crew, and speculated they made an emergency landing, then tried to hide in the surrounding countryside.