Jack (USAMD) Purcell

Certainly the pilots and service members that are the subject of this "documentary" are shown to be highly skilled,dedicated, insanely courageous professionals; a credit to the Army and the US. The "documentary" itself fails. It is propaganda where simple unvarnished truth would have sufficed (thus its direction is an insult to its audience and its subjetcs) and employs cheapening melodramatic hooks throughout---including (or especially) the frequent, ominous mention that only three voice recordings "were recovered," suggesting some massacre of the flight. The same device of cheap foreshadowing was gratuitously employed to suggest that a wounded pilot (who survived and whose heroic conduct was demeaned by the employment of such devices) had been killed. All crew and aircraft returned safely, tho some of the aircraft were unsurprisingly damaged. The repeated insertion of post-mission idolization of the conduct of the aircrews on their first combat mission constitutes unnecessary cheer leading and leaves one wondering what the crews expected war to be like, and how they would confront having to do the same thing tomorrow and every day. It would have been interesting to explore more the prior defensive training of the aircrew given that they seemed surprised to have been shot at, and then unfamiliar with the basic and long practiced technique of massed blind firing at helicopters (silver bullet theory) which goes back at least to Viet Nam. It was also interesting, and worthy of further exploration, that the pilots, who were unable to see the tracers coming at them, had to rely on the fairly low tech directions of the foward pilot who could see them as to how to evade these fires, and in one case at least, the pilot seemed dismissive of the gunner's reports and did not take the suggested evasive action. If that communication "system" ("break left, break right"---"what?") also determines how an oncoming missile was to be evaded, the Apaches would seem to be doomed in a high threat environment. Is sum, what would have been a very interesting subject had it been left unvarnished, this "documentary" is weakened, and its subjects cheapened, by melodramtic glamorization of the soldiers,their aircraft and their mission, which was a high tech marvel of modern warfare defeated by the lowest tech sort of defense. An interview with some Iraqis about their anti-helicopter tactics might have been informative, and would not have diminished at all the courage these pilots displayed that day and every day that followed. The director over directed an easy assignment. Just tell the story and trust the audience. Heroism needs no exaggeration.