In an exciting change of events, we have been informed that my three roommates and I will no longer be door gunners in the Chinooks we had been training on. We are now assigned to a Blackhawk Company. Since we have been detached from our home unit, Sergeant First Class Kevin McCreary, Staff Sergeant Kevin Leonhard, Specialist Cody Noble and I are now known as the "four horsemen".

In a very non-chalant manner, we were approached by our first sergeant who said "you, you, you, and you are all now with A Company". We all chuckled until we realized he was serious. A Company is a unit of the Montana National Guard who fly Blackhawk Helicopters. We are getting to know the guys. They all seem like great guys, but we do miss operating with the guys from PA. The Montana guys have already done this gig once. They were in Iraq a couple years ago and all of their pilots and crew members are well trained and tested. Our operations shouldn't change a lot.

Going from Chinooks to Blackhawks normally would not be a big issue, except for the fact that I spent my entire last night at home convincing my mother that she shouldn't worry, since Chinooks are the safest thing in the sky. I assured her that Blackhawks would be a more dangerous job and that we should be thankful that I do not have that mission.

I believe it went something like this, "What could go wrong mom? The Chinooks are built right here in Ridley Township! Dad worked there for 20 years! Those Blackhawks are dangerous. Chinooks are safe."

Open mouth, insert foot.

In actuality, despite my attempts to convince my mother otherwise, the Blackhawk is about as safe as any other aircraft in the sky (regardless of the fact that SGT Probst of B Company says he has yet to see a movie called CHINOOK DOWN http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265086/) according to all of our pilots.

I am comforted by the fact that my family worries at the same level regardless of the bull I try to feed them about the safety of our mission. In all sincerity, they are much calmer this time than last time. As many of you read on Totten's article, Ramadi was no place nice in 2006. Iraq seems to have been pacified quite a bit since then, and flying above the action is safer than being on the ground in the thick of it. As my platoon sergeant put it, "if you're on the ground and you're not in the chow hall, your bunk, or getting ready to fly, you got problems" meaning we're aviators and our job is to stay in the sky.