NATO Mi-17 pilot rescues three in suicide attack

On Tuesday, May 18, 2010, Lt. Col. Olaf Holm was piloting an Afghan National Army Air Corps Mi-17 transport helicopter returning to Kabul from Gardez province when he spotted a flaming vehicle.

A suicide bomber detonated a vehicle-borne IED killing five Americans and one Canadian, and according to reports at least 12 Afghan civilians, wounding dozens more. The area around the attack site is where a number of Afghan government buildings are, including the ministry of energy and water.

Lt. Col. Holm had just changed radio frequencies to speak with the Kabul International Airport control tower. Holm’s craft was one of two helicopters south of Kabul at an altitude of 300 feet when his Afghan flight engineer, Galabadin, told him there was an incident below. Holm repeated attempts to contact the lead chopper by radio, but it passed the accident and couldn’t be reached.

Lt. Col Holm circled to the left around the attack site and saw a second flaming vehicle. On a low pass, Holm saw American vehicles and Americans on the ground as he instructed the crew to prepare for landing. Holm made a quick check for power lines and obstacles. His biggest challenges were that his co-pilot was still in training and they were low on fuel. He landed in a grass field 50 yards from the site.

Once landed, Holm looked left and saw a burning vehicle through a hole created by the blast in a stone wall. Co-pilot Galabadin wert to see what was going on, while Holm remained at the controls in case something happened. After a few minutes, Holm sent an interpreter to help Galabadin talk with the Americans.

After five minutes Holm gestured to his co-pilot for the crew to say low in the chopper and went to the blast site. He climbed through the hole made by the blast and saw burning vehicles to his left, carnage everywhere. To his right, he saw the site of the first vehicle in the convoy, which was destroyed.

He didn’t see any ambulances. The first American Holm encountered was a wounded Soldier sitting on the ground next to one of the SUVs. His uniform, sanitized from his last mission, bore an American Flag.

Holm along with a French female soldier, who was part of the convoy, helped the soldier to the helicopter escorted by a security detail of uninjured soldiers from one convoy vehicle.

Holm told the security detail to guard the helicopter, while he went back for more wounded. He found a colonel and his sergeant major. The colonel had a dressing on his neck and the sergeant major’s face was covered in blood, unclear whether the blood was his or from another casualty. Holm brought them to the helicopter through the debris and passed the four-foot deep and 12-foot wide crater left by the blast.

On the way to the helicopter, someone handed the colonel a handful of dog tags.

“And his knees about buckled,” said Holm.

Holm returned to check for more casualties. He called his commanding officer and asked the 438th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group medical personnel to meet them at the base hospital. The helicopter rotor, turning this whole time was adding to fuel consumption. The chopper was dangerously low on fuel, yet Holm returned and took off.

Holm called the Kabul International Airport control tower, telling them that he was an urgent MEDEVAC with three patients: one critical, two ambulatory. The tower supervisor cleared the runway and requested an ambulance to meet the helicopter. As the helicopter taxied off the runway, low fuel warnings were coming on and there were failures in two of the main fuel pumps which meant they were dry. Holm parked the helicopter on the apron directly in front of the Hospital.

Things happened so fast that the ambulance hadn’t arrived. Holm and the casualties dismounted the helicopter and walked to the gate that separates the airfield from the hospital.

The helicopter’s rotor still turning, Holm quickly returned and transferred it to the apron at the Air Corps base in case another MEDEVAC helicopter needed to park there.

Since becoming a pilot, he has flown UH-60 Blackhawk MEDEVAC helicopters for the Army as Army Medical Service Corps officer and HH-60 Pavehawk Rescue helicopters for the Air Force.

“Generally in Pave MEDEVAC, you have a plan. You have communications with someone on the ground, you have an idea of the threat situation and there are medical personnel on the aircraft,” Holm said. “Technically, the mission wasn’t difficult; we just had to do something.”

This isn’t the first time Holm has been in the right place at the right time. He flew one of two Mi-17 helicopters to rescue victims of the Salang Pass avalanche rescue in February of this year and most recently in the search for the Pamir Airways Antonov-24 crash.

“My first concern is always to control the aircraft. When I saw the Americans on the ground I knew we had to go in. I was thinking I was going to land anyway, but when I saw the Americans my mind was made up,” Holm said. “I was just disappointed we couldn’t help more people.”

By Petty Officer 1st Class Elizabeth Burke - NATO Training Mission Afghanistan (www.ntm-a.com)