I remember when the Blackwater Little Bird (MD 500) went down in Iraq, and it was a shock to all of us working in the industry at the time. This crash and the deaths that resulted, hit home to a lot of folks, to include the brother of one of the dead–Dan Laguna. Dan’s book goes into some of the details of this crash, and the life and sacrifices of this 160th SOAR pilot and contractor Little Bird pilot.
These Little Bird pilots and crews did some amazing and extremely dangerous work back then. If you remember the battle of Najaf or the rescue of the wounded Polish diplomat, you get an idea of the type of missions and contracts they were involved with. Which by the way, I did not know that the Polish government awarded Dan their Silver Star for the rescuing of their diplomat? (see video)
But the other thing I wanted to highlight here is that Dan represents the kind of sacrifice that contractors make and have given in this war. In this war alone, from 09/01/2001 to 03/31/2011, there have been 2,620 contractors killed.(Xe has lost 29 KIA according to the DoL statistics, 33 according to T. Christine Miller’s graph) That is 2,620 souls that had friends and families, all destroyed by the worst disaster they could ever experience–the loss of a loved one or friend. Not to mention entire towns mourned the loss of these men and women, and the memory of that loss is with everyone forever…
During this Memorial Day weekend, there will be many folks out there looking back on this loss and trying make sense of it all. For some, the pain and despair is a constant, and any and all sources of inspiration is needed to get through the days. That is why I recommend books like Dan Laguna’s. He is a military veteran and contractor veteran, and he lost his brother and comrades to war. If you want to learn how he copes, or understand his struggle to better understand how you can work through your loss and struggle, then this book is for you.
This book is also a testament to the kind of every day heroic deeds that contractors performed in these wars. It is also a testament to the heroic deeds of a 160th SOAR pilots. Which brings up another point.
A contractor is usually a military veteran. Most often, they are military veterans with incredible backgrounds, multiple deployments in the war, and have lost comrades. Not to mention the hard lives of the families of veterans who had to keep things going at the home front all of those years.
These veterans make up a large contingent of contractors. Some are even retired military veterans who definitely gave their pound of flesh to country….and then some. And yet these same men continue to serve and die as contractors, and to me, that is inspirational and something to admire. –Matt
Dan Laguna’s blog here.
Buy the book here.
Facebook for book here.
Blackwater’s Little Birds blog here.
Find the book in the Jundi Gear Locker here.
Book Description from Amazon
On July 20, 1994, Dan Laguna and Carlos Guerrero of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment SOAR were in a devastating helicopter accident. Carlos died and Dan spent months in the hospital recovering from 3rd and 4th degree full thickness burns and several broken bones. His story of survival is miraculous, inspirational and motivating. He returned to duty a year later and served seven more years in his unit before retiring.
After retiring from the Army and moving to Utah, Dan took a job working as a contractor for Blackwater USA in 2004. On January 23, 2007 his brother, Art Laguna, and four of his brothers in arms were killed when their helicopter was shot down over Baghdad, Iraq.
Dan Laguna’s helicopter had extensive damage due to small arms fire and was forced to land but after inspecting the helicopter and noticing dozens of insurgents racing toward them, he decided to take the risk and fly back to the Green Zone.
This book is a tribute to his fallen brothers whose, courage, bravery, and patriotism are what make this country what it is today.—————————————————————-
Utah Helicopter Pilot Talks About Battle That Killed Brother
January 24th, 2007
First of all my brother is and was a HERO. All he ever wanted to do from the time I can remember as a child, was he wanted to fly. He became one of the most professional pilots you could have ever known. I recruited my brother to join us with Blackwater Aviation. We get a lot of resumes but only a few have the qualifications to join us. This is one of the most demanding jobs in Iraq. The military flies some every day, but we in Blackwater Aviation are up flying in the RED zone every day all day.
To get to your question of what happened, I got a call that we had some of our Blackwater PSD teams in contact and needed help. We are the QRF (Quick Reaction Force) for just about everyone. The military takes to long to respond because of the approval they have to get all the way up the chain of command. I am the only one that makes the decision to go or not and we always go when someone is in harm’s way.
I sent out two helicopters to help our team in contact. After they were on station for a very short time they began to receive automatic fire. One of my door gunners was shot immediately in the head. Both helicopters flew back to the Green zone to get him to the hospital. I was monitoring the radio and knew we had at lest one wounded. I got my crew together and and my brother’s crew then went back out to help our PSD team.
When we arrived at their location which only took about three minutes, we started to receive heavy volumes of automatic fire from all around. My brother was my wing man at that point and as we took evasive maneuvers I heard him they were taking rounds. By the time I got turned around to see him he was gone. As I continued to look for his helicopter we also got shot down. I was able to land the helicopter in a small courtyard. I shut down the helicopter to asses the damage and to make sure my crew was ok. My crew was fine and the helicopter was shot up pretty bad but was able to fly the three to five minutes back to the Green zone.
I need to get my crew out of that area because it would have been only a few minutes before the insurgents would have gotten to us. After I got back to our area I had the mechanics put on three more rotor blades and went back out to find my brother and his crew. It only took them about ten to fifteen minutes to get me air borne again.
I was back up looking for my brother and was able to get the military to help with search. It took about twenty minutes to locate the helicopter. It had been shot down in a small ally which made it very difficult to locate. By the time we found the helicopter two of the bodies were drug out and into the street. The Army and our PSD team got there just in time before they could do anything with them.
I landed at that location so I could make sure they were my guys. When I unzipped the second body bag that the Army had already put them in I found my brother. I was told by the ground guys that they would get them all back to the Green zone. I walked back to my running helicopter, jumped in and flew back to the Green zone. I then realized I had to make a very difficult call to my brother’s wife. I did everything I could to let her know he did not suffer and how very sorry that I was. Latter that night I was asked to go to the hospital to ID my guys. Later at the hospital the US Ambassador showed up to talk with me.
I am only telling you this story because I don’t believe the media really tells the public how all of these Hero’s military and civilian really believe in what we are doing over here. I know we are doing the right thing in helping the Iraqi people and wish everyone could understand that.
May God bless the men and woman here and their families.
–Dan Laguna Blackwater Aviation Program Manager Baghdad, Iraq
Story here.Dan Laguna’s blog here.
Buy the book here.
Facebook for book here.
Blackwater’s Little Birds blog here.
Find the book in the Jundi Gear Locker here.
