ANNIHILATOR 23’S SIX-HOUR FIGHT

OH-58D Kiowa Warrior pilots battle Afghan insurgents

BY JAN TEGLER

LESS THAN A KILOMETER SOUTH of the U.S. Army’s Forward Operating Base “Salerno” in southeastern Afghanistan, Chief Warrant Officer (CW2) Joseph Priester pulled pitch to put his OH-58D down in a hastily improvised landing zone. Priester had already landed in the spot three times, picking up wounded commandos while under fire. Sweat-soaked and fatigued, he craned his neck to the left to look for his copilot, Brian Peterson. Peterson sprinted for the helicopter, ducking under its whirling rotor disk. “He runs over and looks into the cockpit,” Priester remembers. “His seat is soaked in blood. There’s blood on the flight controls and the instrument panel and there’s blood on me and he just gets in and starts operating like it’s nothing!” AWACS to Afghanistan By August 2008, Priester was an experienced combat pilot. Having…

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Flight Journal (Digital) - 1 Issue, September - October 2022

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