 Medevac mission to me is I think one of the most honorable missions you can conduct in either a peacetime or wartime army. You're picking someone up on the worst day of their life and giving them hope that they're gonna make it through that day. Where that beacon you know those guys on the ground they don't have to worry how they're gonna get back or you know where where they're gonna go because once we show up we just we take it from there and we bring them home. We are the like the angels the the hope that people see on the battlefield whenever their comrades get wounded injured probably one of the most rewarding things that I'll ever have the opportunity to do in the army. The stuff to me is a huge responsibility more than anything I we're trusted we're trusted by our best friends our brothers and sisters that we will be there for them regardless of the situation regardless of where we are what time it is when it is what the conditions are that when you call that nine lineup you're gonna see Black Hawk with the Red Cross coming down to save you. I mean obviously being here at Campbell at 101st like there's just so much historical legacy you know and with this unit in particular just the countless campaigns I know since I've been in the Army you know you always hear about 101 cab deploying you know to the fight in Centcom whether it's Iraq or Afghanistan and all the great things that they've done so you know walking into this hangar into this building it's like you feel the weight of that that history on you you know and you want to continue that legacy so when I came here to Campbell I was so excited to be you know here at the 101st and certainly here with you know Eagle Dustoff. He was our brother. We actually progressed together in the aircraft and I was a new to Medevac and just learning hoist with him was really fun we had a lot of hours spent in the back of the aircraft together we turned wrenches together every day day in the day out and he's just a good guy you know if he if he was having a bad day you would honestly never know because his smile just he lit up the entire room that man he he was very quiet but he was also one of the loudest people in a room just from his personality alone he had a bubbly infectious personality kind hearted person great worker one of the best workers we have here almost the first day he came over to the company he was talking to me about how you know his goals and what he wanted in the army and he had been working on a flight school packet and we sort of had to pick up the ball from where he had had it in his previous company and kind of run with it and help him out with getting letters of recommendation and stuff like that and you know we were able to help him a lot with getting that packet together and you know he had just found out a week and a half ago that he had gotten into flight school when I heard the news I called him right away and I wasn't his platoon leader any more by that point but I still kind of thought of him as one of my guys and I called him and I just told him that I was proud of him and I knew that he was gonna do a great job and I just remember on the phone he was like oh thank you sir thank you I'm so happy and I know that if things had turned out differently that he would have really turned out to be a fantastic pilot and it's a huge loss that that we don't get to have him on board Sauron Bolognus wow what a firecracker she was always making food you know always feeding people here at the hangar she was really proud of her culture and we really embraced that we really looked forward to that Sergeant Bolognus and I both have a love for learning more about our family heritage and she brought that to work she had that in her cooking and I love that about her like she believed in that she believed in America and I'm gonna miss that about her every day like yeah she looked she loved her family she was doing very positive individual very impactful and she is she's just that she's that person if you're having a bad day you could come in and she'd be talking about some food she made or how she she was making spam moussa beef for someone so she's just she's an awesome individual when I first got to the unit was PFC Bolognus and I was assigned to second platoon to be the new section leader that platoon was coming out of Latvia together and came back to Germany where I joined them and they all knew each other really well they were really tight they just spent a lot of time in the field together and I was sort of the new guy that Emily was always just so kind you know she immediately even though I was an officer and she's a PFC she still went out of her way to make sure that I felt welcome and I felt like a member of the platoon which really meant a lot to me my man Salinas he was from day one an absolute goofball he he was all all about it though from the second he got here until you know the the last night I saw him before he went out to fly he he wanted to be here and he wanted he wanted to fly Salinas couldn't fit through a doorway he always had to turn sideways even though he didn't and I love that I didn't get a lot of time with him because he was so new but from the second he was here he was someone that we knew was gonna be a really big player for the medics he was always first one to say yes I want to train yes I want to be a better medic just tell me what to do he was the first one to volunteer for a flight I need covered even though he wasn't RL1 he couldn't do it I always appreciated that it was funny always having to say like are you done progressing he's like well no and this was always there for anyone he really wanted to be RL1 he wanted to finish his progression and that was his flight that night to get it and he got it he just needed that point to he got it there's just there's not gonna be a lot of things we can do to fill in what he did for us we're gonna think about him every day and we all loved him every single person first platoon and every single person that met him started gore my NCOAC air salt um he was so happy all the time as well when he took over my as my NCOAC man that guy works hard like I can't explain he he was so passionate about the 101st Airborne Division like every conversation me and him had he would always end it with a loud and thunderous air assault gore was someone who the second you met them you felt like family he was kind he was funny he lit up a room he never came in without a smile and he was really good at finding the thing that bothered you for me it was the just the whole air assault thing and he knew it always got me so he'd always make sure to throw that in there starting gore Caleb we we were medics together back at Carson so I knew new gore for you know for since 2017 known gore and he was the exact same person then as he was now just your garyus and funny and in love to have a good time I'll never forget just the passion that he had for what we do and the passion he had for medicine he was gonna go to a nursing school or PA school whatever he could do to be better he was gonna do that and it was really inspiring because I think it's something that we all have goals to do but he was just making it happen so fast and I always just love that I could count on him to bring things back to normal or not strong but in a perspective gore is a gore Superman that's what he is one of the strongest NCOs that I've ever had the pleasure of working with and one of the best dudes all around just a great guy Taylor Mitchell passionate passionate about the medevac mission his passion was to train the people around him to possibly have the chance to save a life one day because he knew the privilege that comes along with saving a life just hearing like my friends at other dust-off units or anything that knew him he was exactly what you think of when you hear a flight medic you smart he was athletic he was amazing as a person in general he was selfless and he just had so much knowledge that you couldn't even you couldn't understand you just you couldn't understand how someone can know so much and actually be able to keep it together training with him you felt like you were in rare air and it's a shame that I'll never get to see all his camping trinkets again and learn how to better my field craft and just spend time with just a great guy he just was comfort and he was the person that everyone here relied on to know what to do you don't have a lot of those people like that I think that a lot of us are so new that we're still learning and he was kind of that like old man in the young man's body kind of wisdom we wanted to sell the brand he was dust off through and through if I could put anybody on a poster for dust off it would have been Taylor Mitchell being around Jeff I it was very evident how selfless of a person he was more often than not when I think about Jeff he was asking me what I needed if there was anything that he could help me with rather than the other way around every single time without fail every single time I left the office Jeff Barnes asked me what he could do to help and there's just not very many people that do that I don't care what organization you work for and you know I got my always pregnant I got my little girls on the way and Jeff and Aaron both pulled me aside multiple times and just gave me so many kernels of wisdom about how to be a good dad how to be a good dad in the army and just I think the biggest takeaway I had from both of them was that you got to enjoy every single second as it comes and I think especially Jeff taught me that more than anything and I'm so grateful for that I know that Jeff had gone through some difficult things before coming here and I think that experience could have caused him to like harden or be pessimistic or cynical or negative in his life but he wasn't like he was this guy that had this huge heart for other people and I think that was the other thing that drew me to him was he's this guy that would give his shirt off his back for anybody and whether it was at work or outside of work like he he was the same he was just super genuine knowing him such a short time is hard it's difficult but I still am like really grateful for the chance to get to know someone like him just a phenomenal human being through and through Aaron was new newer to our platoon but I already could tell he'd he'd accomplish great things in the army and was going to he was I mean we only had one field exercise but he was the first one up every morning when I was on night guard and we just sat we talk every morning just about life and how eager he was and love what he did Aaron Healy I mean he he only he came to the platoon like a couple months ago and immediately you know I knew that he was one of the good ones you know after flying for a while you can kind of get a feel for when pilots are gonna make pilot and command fast when pilots are gonna get things fast understand the mission fast the business get it Aaron Healy was Aaron was absolutely one of those people Jeff and Aaron were my buddies you know you get as the W1 had been here for a year and you get and you hear new W1s are coming in and you're just you're excited because you get a hand off the fridge right which I think any of the warrants can understand but what I got in them was something much greater Jeff and Aaron were both professional hard charging hard nosed NCOs that took that into being aviators and I think more so than that especially Aaron just kicked all of her butts in the books man he was he was really sharp rest in Smith and I first got to the company he was the first instructor pilot I spoke to he did my entire progression and I I think pilots sometimes you'll just feel a connection with someone in the cockpit and rest in was that person for me being his platoon leader and everything he already had on his plate he still checked in on our guys he checked in with me made sure that we as a platoon had what we needed to succeed and then he would go and do stand stuff progressions flights night flights everything he just is on top of it all and it was impressive very impressive Rustin was the pilot that I always was excited to fly with he was the person that was always going to do things the right way and I just always knew that like he would do anything he could to keep us safe I think as a pilot Rustin just had a way about him that was comforting some of my hardest flights were with him just on a personal level flights that I was experiencing new things outside my comfort zone and Rustin was just I trusted him with everything even after I finished progression I would just bug him be like get on this flight with me you know like comply with me comply with me and that week I was one that I was I put him on the flight schedule it was like you know Smith and he mail for this aim are for fifth group and last minute he was I don't know he's super dedicated to his job that's it's all there is to it and he was like no I've got to finish this progression on Barnes and Healy you know as much as I want to do the fun flying I've got got to do this flight as I can understand that you know and so we went out that night and that same night that they were flying we were flying and they obviously didn't make it back and we did and came back landed the aircraft everyone was obviously very emotional and it didn't it didn't process for me yet I think so just treated it like a normal flight you know and put all the fly-away gear tied up the aircraft grabbed all the SI went to fly it up it's like very normal it's totally fine him and then I went to put my flight gear away and his wasn't in the locker and I knew his was never gonna be in the locker anymore he he was about to PCS down a record to be an instructor pilot there I had four weeks left here it was he was going to touch so many kids down at flight school I I feel like flight school taught me all the basics you know Russ and taught me how to fly it's all there is to it sex bars I'm sure everyone's gonna talk about him just his personality and always smiling I'm always excited for me the thing that stood out again like we talked about before the passion love of medevac and checking in on all of us I mean almost daily weekly he'd come in just got checking on my Juliet's the amount he cared was just immense huh Zach was my platoons IP so we've spent a lot of time together a lot of time together in the cockpit and you know I he's was such a character and just really in a lot of ways a larger-than-life person that loved to have fun love to joke around loved being a pilot but also took his job very seriously and I learned so much from him when I was cutting my teeth here about how to be an aviator what to look for what to be focused on but he definitely grew in me you know love for aviation and a love for doing what we do and I that'll be something that I'll never forget and then I'll take with me always as we as I leave here as they go to whatever unit Zach's love for aviation and Zach's love for teaching is something that I hope that I can carry on and do my best to share with the Army aviation community at large because it'll be a better place for it one of the closest people in the company I was probably with when I think aviation all things Medevac like Zach and body if he wasn't talking about Medevac he was talking about his private plane he was all things aviation but you know even if we weren't flying or even if we're in the field environment he was always coming up to me and he was at the balloon level and you say I want to get a class together I want to sit down I want to bring people in I want to teach him this or teach him that and he was always one step ahead I was thinking about him this morning you know and like he had really just lived life like to the fullest when he was at work he was a hundred percent at work and just poured himself into this job every time I've had flown with him the cockpit he it was no matter what kind of flight or what was happening in the day despite you know the stress of work going on or the tasks at hand he would just look at me and you would hold out his fist and he would just you know waiting for a fist bump and so I just remember the first time he did it I was like oh it's looking you know it's kind of cool um and he would he would look at me and say you know like hey it's a good day we're gonna fly today so and so I um yeah he was a really big like mentor for me and I always wanted to be on top of my game whenever I flew with him you know always be prepared and because I wanted to I wanted to rise to that bar that I felt like he had set for me and so moving forward I don't think there will ever be a flight where I don't think about him I want to do well for him people on those crews were just some of the best best attitudes best personalities and loved what they did I think the hardest thing about what's happened is that for the most part these were the people that made me feel safe just I'll miss them my entire life it's just a difficult time you know right now for us and but we're here as a family you know and we just move forward as a family yeah man miss the hell out of them but I the other day they came in started up all our aircraft for the first time to do 14 days and even just hearing the rogers turn I think brought to the entire company like just the best feeling you would think after an accident like this you know the last thing you would want to do is get back into the cockpit like climb back you know and start being around the aircraft and it's goes back to that responsibility piece I was talking about earlier that's all we want to do right now because as tragic as this is the mission doesn't stop it does it's we I wish I wish more than anything I could have done something to save them that night you know because talk about medivac and we talk about saving lives what we don't talk about is the lives we're not able to save and that's hard it's really hard especially when everyone knows them you're part you're part of your team but earlier somebody said you know that what is what is met it what is dust off it's like you are that angel and they're all nine of them guarantee you every time we go up there with all of us as like cliches that sounds yeah we we lost some really great people