Blackhawk UP

Got assigned to accompany a reporter to cover a medevac unit outside the wire a few nights ago. I had my first ride on a Blackhawk helicopter immortalized in "Blackhawk Down". The crew loaded up our gear as we awaited on the flight line to get on board. It was time to lock and load "Martha Washington" (my M-16's name based off the Frank Miller character) and hop aboard. The door gunners were the illest sight-they wore "Darth Vader" like facemasks connected to their helmets. They were looking very sinister as the Blackhawk soon took off and they locked and loaded(the sight of them racking their 249 Bravo made me think of Biggie's lyric from "Warning".."putting ligaments into bad predicaments..." The Blackhawk rose and floated up like some magic carpet but the gusts of wind remind you otherwise coming from the doorgunners windows. Plus it's loud inside. No "flight of the valkeries" just the sound of the wind and the door gunners swiveling around like vultures scanning for any of the Talibs bold enough to wanna take potshots on our way to the FOB. Thank God these fools don't have Stinger missles or anything similiar yet. Nervous and a bit amped I was as we left KAF. The 1ST LT sitting next to me nudged my shoulder and asked if I was gonna get sick. I nodded nope...I was riding pure adrenaline...We passed over the desert landscape of southern A-stan, past camels, goatherders, small villages, mini patches of lush green land and cellphone towers(Talib needs to make calls too)....We arrived at the FOB without incident and I was introduced to some of the coolest cats I've met thus far in the Army. They made me feel at at home and were mad chill-none of that hierarchy rank shit...They had four consecutive nights of action and this night could go either way. It was 24 hours on being on pins and needles to some extent awaiting a call for a dustoff-(medevac) then scrambling to the birds(1 gunship for protection and then the medevac). I felt more at home with them in that short time that with my own unit. If I could, I'd change and do medevac. Most of their pickups are Afghani's(civilian/soldiers) and our dudes. Thankfully, it was a good night. No calls for a dustoff. I am looking to go back up there to do a mini doc on them. Btw, on a random note, that outpost that got overran last week by the Talibs is a "combat outpost" "COP". Medevacs can be very hairy-you never know what you might be going into but I am finding out about myself -that in some ways, like that dude in the Hurt Locker-it's not the war-it's the adrenaline drug, the life near the edge that makes you feel alive and in the now. You and my peeps-are kinda abstract at the moment and I blessed that technology via the internet/cellphone/skype make the abstraction less abstract. I took some flip video from my first Blackhawk ride that I'll post soon.