Chapter 33 – Urged to Jump

Synopsis of the operational restrictions, How leaks are found and the time Ron Laniere and I are fired on during a leak inspection

 

As soon as the wind stopped the tether tension dropped precipitously so I knew Don and I hadn’t patched all the holes in the balloon that first night, not by a long shot. There was still enough helium in the balloon to prevent the condition I feared but barely. To verify the alarmingly low tension reading on the GSHS screen I went up on the platform and pulled on the tether. I was able to pull the balloon down with one arm! With the lift that low, at the leakage rate we were suffering, the emergency would have happened within hours so once again we had to recover the balloon with little notice and the work that we were scheduled to do with the camera was cancelled. Fortunately, we weren’t supposed to do anything critical that night.

---

Balloon Wars Home Page
OTHER SELECTED CHAPTERS
Chapters 1 & 2 – PTDS & the ISR Network
Chapter 12 – Battle in Al Atiba’a
Chapter 17 – Muqtada al-Sadr
Chapter 40 – Mortar Attack
Chapter 78 – UTAMS Repair
Chapter 79 – IRAM – A Deadly New Weapon
Chapter 82 – Bagram and Waza Khwa
Chapter 86 – Captain Ellis
Chapter 87 – 9th Inflation and The Karez
Chapter 116 – Just Living
 
Click here to comment on any of the Balloon Wars sample chapters

---

 
Kite balloons have been operated in difficult environments including the North Atlantic, the South Pole and other war zones but the conditions in the New Baghdad security district in the summer of 2007 were in many ways unique. You can’t recover a kite balloon anywhere if the wind is too high. Officially we weren’t supposed to launch or recover the balloon in winds greater than 20 knots. We couldn’t recover in daylight without drawing fire and if the tactical need was urgent, which it often was, the Army wouldn’t let us come “off-mission”. Finding out, when it’s too late, that there wasn’t enough helium in the balloon to stay aloft may never have happened before and I was almost the first flight director to have that dishonor.

 
Finding and repairing the leaks became an obsession. During the next six weeks we conducted seven leak inspections. Ron Laniere and I went up to do the next one after that first night when Don and I did the repairs. This time both of us wore our helmets and vests. Ron wasn’t one of those fatalists who spoke of the bullet with his name on it. Using the pressure washer we covered one panel at a time with soapy water to produce bubbles and reveal leaks. After finding and repairing several I became absorbed in the task and stopped worrying about the windows and shadows outside the wall. Finding a hole was a victory and with each we’d call down, “Found one!” And the others literally cheered.
 
A couple hours before daylight, with sweat pouring out from under the vest and helmet, just about the time when I’d stopped thinking about our location and the circumstances, we heard gunfire. Turning toward the sound we saw tracers coming over the wall near the guard tower and toward us. The same feeling I’d had when Winston and I were outside at Site One and a single round zipped by came over me but this time it was much worse. And I couldn’t take cover. The troops in the tower fired back and more rounds came in. Terror seized me and I had the urge to leap out of the basket just like those who jump from burning buildings. It was nearly irresistible and completely rational. Two broken legs seemed better than a rifle bullet in just about any part of my body. But rather than jump Ron and I made ourselves as small as we could as I swung the boom away from the balloon and took us down, at a sickening slow pace.
 
The rest of the crew ran behind T walls long before Ron and I got down. We joined them and talked about what had just happened and whether or not the balloon had more holes now. We couldn’t wait much longer to go back out and launch the balloon. Sunrise was at 0430 which was less than two hours off. The shooting stopped almost as soon as Ron and I got down. The BDOC told us the men in the towers couldn’t see anyone outside so it was probably over. We went back out and got the balloon up in time but we were worried that we were losing ground. If we drew fire during leak inspections we might never get ahead of the problem and we might also be killed. That possibility prompted one member of the crew, Mike Camp, to refuse to work above the wall. I wouldn’t have blamed them if they all had.

---

 
This program is about my job in the war zones and how the events of September 11, 2001 affected my family. It isn’t the television version of the memoir. The resources to produce that are beyond me, but the video and stills in this more modest production compliment the book.
 

© Robert A. Crimmins

---

Click here to comment on any of the Balloon Wars sample chapters
 

Book Chapter and photos © Robert A. Crimmins, Felton, Delaware, USA

(photos on this page are by others)