I took a sad flight a couple of days ago.  We had an Kosovar lady in our aircraft that was dying of cancer.  She had been in our hospital for a while, but she was terminal and the family wanted her to return to her home to pass.  It was determined that a car ride would be rough for her condition.

After she was loaded onto the aircraft I looked around to see her face.  I always look at the faces of the people I pick up.  I want them to know who is flying them to wherever they are going.  The look on this young lady's face was different.  The skin color was a little off.  Yellowish.  Grayish.  Her eyes seemed a little sunken.  She smiled back but not in a big way, just a way of being nice.

We took off for the 20 minute flight and it was quiet.  We usually talk about a myriad of things while flying.  On this flight, however, there was no small talk  Just the minimum radio calls were made.

We landed at the hospital and local people started coming towards the helicopter.  Several of them approached after the blades stopped turning.  I did not know the people, but you could tell they were her family.  The look in their eyes said it all.

She was loaded onto an ambulance for the 20 yard ride to the civilian hospital. 

I'll change gears here and tell you some good stuff that happened at our hospital landing site.

The kids always come around when we land.  They love to see the helicopters.  Just like me when I was a kid.  For that matter, just like me today.  We did our best at explaining things to the crowd of 50 or so.  Some of them spoke very broken English at best.  

One of our crewchiefs can make noises - crickets, donkeys and dogs.  The kids love that.  They all made their best noises for each other.  The entire group was laughing.

There were some small shops next to us and I wanted some chocolate.  Everyone loves chocolate.  The store was small - about the size of a stall where you wash your car.  The lady working was in her 20's and her 3 year old came out from a door at the rear of the store. 

She explained to her son that I was the helicopter pilot and the look in his eyes was pure amazement.  I know now what it would feel like to be from Mars.  He had a huge smile on his face.  I bent over to the bay and with a little direction allowed him to remove the velcro American flag patch from my flight suit.  The 3 of us smiled the entire time. 

I remember how my son Forrest likes to take the flag off my uniform.  The velcro makes a distinct sound.  I had my son attach my flag to my uniform on the day I left home lots of months ago.  I said that I would always think of him when I put that flag on my uniform.  Now I was thinking about him as a small boy in a small store in a small province removed my patch.

I took the chocolate to the kids and shared it will all of them.  They loved it.

By this time our people came back out of the hospital.  We were ready for the return flight.  I do not know if any of you have been around a Blackhawk helicopter when it starts, but it makes a lot of noise and wind.  They all watched in great detail as we started and eventually departed.  We did a pass over the hospital and rocked our wings as we left the area.  The people on the ground were waving and so were we.

The return flight was a mix of feelings.  We respectfully delivered a dying lady to her family, we made a lot of kids laugh with animal noises, I gave a kid a patch, and we all reflected on our mortality.

CW3 Ed Carman
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Monday, March 07, 2005 1:39 PM
Two interesting people I met on the way to Bosnia.

Well I am officially in Bosnia now. I arrived days ago and the snow is upon us. Last night it snowed about 2 feet and it is still snowing. Being from the Atlanta area and seeing very little snow, this is great.

We left Kosovo on Friday and supposed to fly all the way here. We got to Dubrovnic, Croatia and got into some bad weather. Unfortunately we were not able to continue on our flight to Bosnia.

We stayed in the Adriatic coastal town of Cevtat. An absolutely gorgeous place on the sea, with our hotel overlooking the water. This was a nice break from Kosovo.

We enjoyed our time off to the max. I took a bath in a tub in hot water. AAAAHHHH. Now that is great living. That is the first bath in 8 months. Heaven on earth.

The next day was worse weather so we had to stay another day. I started my exploration of the local area. There was a great path to walk along the water to the city center. Town consisted of about 50 buildings and most of those were restaurants. I stopped by for some local pizza and expresso. Great stuff.

I continued my walk and met a man that had lived in Georgia. Not Georgia the country, but Georgia as in Atlanta, Georgia.

When the war broke out in 1991 he was taken captive by the foreign army. He explained the torture and showed me the jail where he was held. Food consisted of 2 tablespoons of a porage stuff. Needless to say his stay was not good. He was let lose after a while and remained in the town.

After a while he found out that the new commander wanted to arrest him again. He had a plan for when the weather got bad. A hurricane was predicted for the next night and he made his get away. He got in the sea, mind you the water was cold in March, and swam for one of the islands. It took him 5 hours to reach that island.

When I asked why he waited for a dark stormy night he pointed at two land masses that jaunted into the sea. One of those areas was where our hotel was. Those points, he said, were manned by machine guns. If they had seen him swimming to the island, he would have been shot.

After making it to the island, he finally got out of the country and made his was to Atlanta. He showed me his driver's license.

We spoke for an hour or so and he showed me with pride his fishing boat that he had just purchased.

The weather the next day was still poor, so we stayed another day. We traveled to the Walled City of Dubrovnic. This city is mentioned in the Xbox games Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six.

We spent the afternoon walking and enjoying the old castle. A beautiful place.

The 15 min taxi ride back to our hotel was as good as the castle. Our driver was also in the war. He stated how he lost his house to fire after the invaders took everything of value. He started to rebuild and his house was burned again and once again.

He said that when the invaders left in 1993 he had nothing but his wife and son. He started working at whatever would pay him and saved as much as he could. He eventually saved enough to buy a taxi license. That cost him $70,000 US dollars - cash. Needless to say that took a long time to save.

He now has his taxi and is saving to buy another license. He said it should not take him long now that the area is seeing more tourism. Most people rent him for the entire day and he makes great money that way.

I guess what I learned is that no matter how bad I have seen it, it can always be worse. I do not know of many people at home that have gone through these types of trials. These men were still so positive. I pray that I could remain the same.
CW3 Ed Carman
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March 04, 2005 8:33 AM

Denzel Washington was visiting BAMC (Brook Army Medical Center), in San Antonio, Texas the other day. This is where soldiers that have been evacuated from Germany come to be hospitalized in the States, especially burn victims. They have buildings there called Fisher Houses. The Fisher House is a hotel that soldiers' families can stay at, for little or no charge, while their soldier is staying in the hospital. BAMC has quite a few of these houses on base, but as you can imagine, they are almost filled to the brim most of the time. While Denzel Washington was visiting BAMC, they gave him a tour of one of the Fisher Houses. He asked how much one of them would cost to build. He got his check book out and wrote a check out for the full amount right there on the spot. The soldiers overseas were amazed to hear this story and want to get the word out to the American public, because it warmed their hearts to hear it. I hope you will spread this story.

Washington has a son who is a Marine in Iraq.