Comanche 06

For those of you who don't know on January 5, 2010 I was blessed to have been promoted into the job of being C company's commander. Charlie company "Comanches" or "Chuck Troop" as it is affectionately known, is one of three line companies in the 1-130 Attack Recon Battalion (ARB). Each line company has 8 Apaches and the Battalion's six companies are all designed to support the three line companies. Being a line company commander is the gold standard in Army Aviation, and highly sought after. The fact that I was blessed to get it, and then to get it in a combat zone is more than I could have ever asked for. It is the culmination of my 14 year Army National Guard career, and I couldn't have done it without the support of my family, and especially Jane who has sacrificed with me at Flight School, and by being home alone while I was at schools and a deployment. Counting it all up Jane has spent about 18 months of our marriage without me being home. She is a rock and I love and appreciate her.

For those wondering what the I2WI2 means at the bottom of the arrowhead, it is our company motto. It means, "It is what it is." It keeps us sane during insane missions/contradicting orders, etc... If you are wondering what Comanche 06 is all about, here is the explanation. In any Company, Battalion, etc.. the important people are all given call signs so that people recognize who they are talking to on the radio. 06 is the number signifying the commander, so in our Battalion (the Panthers), our commander is Panther 06. Well in C company I am Comanche 06. If the Battalion commander wants to talk to me he can call on the radio and say, "Comanche 06, this is Panther 06 over." It is also authoritative. When I go visit a FOB I have never been to before and see a sign that says "Eye protection must be worn at all times by order of Hammer 06" I just put my eye protection on and don't ask questions. I have no idea who Hammer 06 may be, but I know he is the commander of those parts, so I obey. So there you have it.
This picture is me and my new First Sergeant, 1SG West. He is the top enlisted soldier in my company and helps me run it. C company also happens to be the one line company that is split away from the rest of the Battalion. We are at FOB Delta, which is a couple hours flight from where the rest of the Battalion is. Besides C company we have slices of each of the support companies, so I am also the Commander of what we call Task Force Comanche. Overall I am responsible for about 70 people and $250 million dollars worth of equipment in a combat zone with several combat missions daily. Talk about humbling!
This is the formation for the change of command ceremony. Only day shift attended, as we have night missions also, and couldn't interrupt night shift's crew rest cycle.
Here I am in front of the formation with COL Scannell (Battalion Commander) and CPT Parsons (outgoing C Comapny Commander).

Part of the ceremony involves 1SG West handing the company guidon (company colors) to the outgoing commander (CPT Parsons), who hands it to the Battalion Commander (COL Scannell) symbolizing his relinquishing of command. The Battalion Commander then gives me the guidon (as shown in this picture) symbolizing him giving the command to me . Then I give it back to 1SG West and I take over the formation and talk to my troops. It is the most rewarding job in the Amry, but lets just say my already incredibly high workload is now almost unbearable. Oh well, I2WI2.


I have a lot of personalitites in my company. I could write a book about some of these guys, but here are a few examples of my guys. A lot of "art" goes onto our weapons, but this is about the only one appropriate for the folks back home. One of the mechanics put it on there.



This is one of my favorites (as you can see by all the pictures I put on here about it.) Some days you come in to fly, you get your mission briefings (just like Top Gun), you go preflight the helicopter, and you are all ready to go, but you can't because the weather is too bad. You can't cancel the mission in case the weather improves so you just sit around the pilot hooch bored. Well when you get a bunch of bored smart people together, you invent fun. This is one of our favorites. "NVG Jenga."




NVG stands for Night Vision Goggles. We fly with NVGs as a backup night vision system to the Apache's FLIR (Forward looking infra-red) system. When not used on missions we use them to make Jenga more challenging. If you look you can see the people holding the goggles up to their eyes in these pictures. We were all getting too good at Jenga so we upped the stakes by doing it in total darkness with NVGs. One looks through them for their turn and another looks through a second set to make sure you don't cheat. Pilots are all competitive and will do anything to win (even cheat).


I put my camera up to the goggles and took a picture with no flash. This is what it looks like for us playing.
As you can see by this ridiculous stack, when you get people who have really good vision, nerves, and hand-eye coordination (pilots) together, even total darkness isn't much of a challenge.......................which is why I upped the stakes with the Firefly. If you look at this picture you can see a 9 volt battery at the base of the Jenga tower. In all of our survival vests we carry what is called a firefly. It is a tiny piece of plastic that attaches to the top of any 9 volt battery. When attached it gives off an infra-red pulse every second or so, so that the rescue teams can see you under their NVGs, but there is no visible light so the bad guys can't see you. When not used in a combat search and rescue senario, and placed at the base of a blacked out NVG Jenga game it proves quite a distraction. It is meant to be seen miles away under NVGs so you can imagine how bright it is when placed right in front of them. The tower usually doesn't last too long once the firefly is pulled out.