Story 1

by Grundman

Okay, I'm flying one of the pre-generated missions, 'Umbrella'. My job is to escort two Blackhawks in for extraction out of a hot LZ we are retreating from.

No incidents on ingress, very calm, full daylight, a few friendlies around. I'm halfway to the LZ with the BH in tow, when I realise I have a laser ONLY Longbow, no FCR targeting. My wingman and I come upon a group of dug in T-72's about 2 miles South of our LZ, I see them as a threat, call weapons free to my wingie and let loose with three hellfires, of course not realising UNTIL the first two go ballistic that yes, I'm using LASER targeting DAMIT!! :)

On the horizon I see a full all out war happening, right around the LZ. The rangers the BH's have been tasked to pick up have actually popped a purple smoke device, of course, this has the Iranians in a tizzy. Two Radar apaches that have been tasked with CAS are ALL OVER THE LZ, firing rockets, Hellfires and cannon, taking out Sam and artillery sights to the North, smoke and rocked/missle trails POLLUTE the sky. Explosions everywhere. Back to me . . .

To my right, above the T-72's I've wasted, out of a canyon is coming a full brigade of tanks. I think, "Yaah, here comes the Cavalry!" Heh, stupid Grundman, little did I know and had I looked a little closer(or Fiend, my VERY lazy CP/G been doing his fucking job!) I would have seen that they were yes, MORE IRANIANS. This doesn't matter though, because I dip my nose down, throttle up and sceedadle over to the LZ to wait for the BH's and help the CAS boys, who by now MUST be out of missles.

I get to the LZ in about 60 seconds and hover, scanning for bad guys. There are A LOT of various armored friendlies here, and I see more off to my right (the East) coming in, big plumes of dust rising behind their vehicles. So, I'm sitting here hovering, keeping an eye on the BH's when I hear this unique 'booming' of to my right. And then BOOM, I'm vaporized! By what you ask? (as I asked myself). Get this . . .

A tank.

I got pegged by a goddam tank round. Musta been right in the engines too, becuase it was a one rounder, no more Apache, no more me or Fiend.

I hit F6 to see the action, and there is a WAR going on.

My death is a complete cluster-fuck for the Blackhawk. He sees me go down on his twelve-o-clock, about 3/4 mile away from my infamous death.

That damn tank brigade I mentioned earlier is now ON HIS ASS, charging right up, dirt plumes darkening the sky, so he goes for the completion of his mission, picking up the rangers. Suddenly, I see him weaving violently back and forth.

Then the door gunner starts in drawing red fire in the air.

Off to the BH's left side is a small, armed enemy chopper, sadly I don't know what model, all I saw was that it was fast, and coming around in a large circle behind the BH, flying low over the tank army. The door gunner's obviously from the south, because he's actually PEGGING the enemy chopper, from his own violently moving platform. The good old boy is pissed off AND scared, and it shows. Sparks start flying off the side of the bad guy, then there is a small explosion and he augers in at about 100 knots. Sadly, he doesn't take out even one of the lousy tanks, but he scares the SHIT outta them! :)

As I pan my view (currently centered on the BlackHawk) back towards the ranger base, I see green tracers coming at it from the same origin point as the little enemy chopper. Sadly, its a Hind this time, and he's PISSED. The BH pilot vainly aborts the ranger loading site landing, and frantically tries to evade the Hinds shots, but he doesn't even come close. Within seconds I see a fine white plume of whatever the Stinger equivelent is from the Ruskies heading right towards the ill-fated Blackhawk, and DOWN the BH and its valiant crew go, augering in less than 100 yards from its previous victim.

At this point my point of view stayed with crash site, so I panned my view to watch the further antics of this deadly Hind. He flew low and fast over the valley the evil tank brigade was charging up, then circled and slowed behind a small ridge to the Southwest of the ranger camp, and the sonofabitch starts letting fly rockets right into the encampment! I can see the smoke trails and the small brightness of the rocket motors even in the full sunlight. He starts laying waste to the good guys and all the stuff around the LZ. This of course, like Good Americans, incises the US forces into action! :)

There was/is A LOT of friendly armor around this Landing Zone FYI. As I continue watching the Hind, he runs out of rockets and moves in with his gun blazing. Suddenly I hear and then see a SAM come streaking out of the smoking LZ and hit the Hind right in the cockpit. KABOOM! Much satisfaction from this death. The remains of the chopper sink straight to the ground, burning parts and rotors flying everywhere, with secondary explosions!

I look to my left, and what's this? The front units of the enemy tank battalion are RETREATING, and the rear units are starting to FIRE ON THE LZ at least 300 yards away. The US forces are HAULING ass out of the now failed LZ and ATTACKING THE TANK BRIGADE! M1's are firing while doing at least 40 MPH, dust plumes flowing like tails behind them. And, they're actually hitting a few of the retreating enemy units! I watch until I cannot watch any more, mostly out of sheer exhaustion! :)

This story is true and happened to me in Longbow 2. I wish I could have captured it on some type of mission recorder to share with you guys, because it was as incredible to watch as it is to read. I seemed to just have chosen the right vehicles to keep my camera/point-of-view at. Frankly, the only thing I DIDN'T see was Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen, heh heh!

Hope you enjoyed. If (actually, WHEN) I ever get another rocking scenario/story like this one, I will be happy to share it. Now, GOODNIGHT!

Grundman