Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “When America Stole a Russian Mi-24 Hind Helicopter” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/when-america-stole-a-russian-mi-24-hind-helicopter/.
When America Stole a Russian Mi-24 Hind Helicopter
- Thread starter Mike H.
- Start date
Cedric
Master Class
Got up close to a Mi-24 C model at an airshow about 10 years ago. It belonged to a contractor who flew OPFOR missions at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Ft. Polk. Never got to see a D model to compare, but the C model seemed to be very bare bones even for a training aid. Just an observation.
Bemused Berserker
Elite
Good article. I didn't realize it took that long to get one.
StoryTimeDavid Collins
Alpha
In June of 1981 I was in Afghanistan fighting alongside the Maharaja den as part of six then eight man mercenary team.
The four main guys were supposedly a four man A team who had served in Vietnam together, I never saw them fire a single shot at the Russians.
We all just had nicknames.
The first day that we were in Afghanistan the four man team was contracted to protect an ancient village.
We hit a Russian supply depot to get weapons, ammunition and supplies.
We made it to the village in the morning and almost as soon as we got there we were hit by four Mi-24 Hind helicopters diving in over some jagged rocking hills firing rocket pods into the village diving in four abreast.
There was an ancient dirt mound that could have at one time been a wall of about 30 foot tall that ran aground from jagged hills to the NE to the NW and down to the South into some rounded rocks.
The two Hinds to the South managed to pull out sooner and make it out of the dive.
The Hind to the North crashed into the ground after receiving heavy fire from small arms and maybe an RPG.
I was running an M1 Garand with black tip AP.
The kid was running an AK47 under folder.
The Interpreter was running a South African G3 that was really mine with black tip AP.
We were walking down the dirt mound / wall looking over what kind of defenses were there when this happened.
The last Hind had slid down so deep after its dive in the it was actually down lower than we were.
The kid was on the North the Interpreter was in the middle and I was on the South we all started firing at the Hind I knew that the pilot was up in the back, so I was firing right at him. I put five rounds of Ball M2 30-06 black tip Armor Piercing right into his windscreen. The Interpreter yelled out “Aim at the rotor!” Meaning the main blade rotor on the helicopter so my last three rounds were at it, as the rotatory cannon was working it’s way up the hillside at us the Hind barely managed to pull up enough to clear the mound.
I felt the spray of something just cover me on my left side as I drove to the ground to keep from getting hit by the stub load wings.
I got up the instant it passed over and loaded in a fresh 8 round E block clip and continued aimed fire at the rotor on the Hind, then I raised up the sight all of the way as I loaded in another clip and continued firing until that clip was empty as the Hind was about 1,500 yards away and seemed to be slowing down as I figured it was going to turn around and come back I loaded in another clip.
The Kid was just getting up off of the ground and seemed to be trying to figure out what had just happened.
I looked around for the Interpreter, a really tall skinny guy in his mid to late 20’s with a British accent, a cool guy in nice clothes well put together that I had only met that morning before the attack on the supply depot.
I looked down the slope to the West and he was blown to pieces by the gun on the Hind. His arms, legs and head was all that was left of him and what I had thought was hydraulic fluid from the Hind was actually his blood and body splattered all over me.
I didn’t know any better, but out of respect for him I went down the slope and slung the G3 and the Garand back around me and I started collecting the pieces of his body that remained and placing them on the flat top of the berm, I had gotten both of his arms and legs up on top and his head had gone further down the slope. As I went to pick up his head his hair had been bundled up and was probably about seven feet long and his head wrap had been blown off. I still remember his eyes they were like a golden color and looked deep into my soul as looked into them.
The Mahajadin fighters all went crazy and started yelling at me as one of them ran down the slope and grabbed his head away from me.
Apparently non Muslims are not allowed to touch their dead.
People from the village were crying and screaming as some others were chanting.
I remember a man in his 30’s holding a four or five year old girl in his arms up on top of what was left of like an adobe tan house holding her and chanting injured and bleeding himself.
Then there was like a screaming coming from where the Hind to the North had crashed, so me and the Kid ran up there.
As we got there several Mahajadin warriors were watching as a crew member from the Hind was completely on fire with helmet on. He had to be dead because he was completely on fire and burning apart.
Just then the Hind that we had been fighting at crashed into the ground about two miles away as the other two Hinds were in formation circling around with one trailing black smoke.
We all expected them to come back at us for another attack run , but they turned to the North and headed towards there mountain base.
So me and the Kid took off running for the one that had just gone down.
I got there first and the pilot and gunner were standing about 100 yards away from me and about 20 yards North of the Hind, they both had AK74’s. I lifted up my Garand and shot them both through the chest.
The Kid caught up and we both went to check out the Hind.
The Mahajadin fighters sowed up and were very upset that I had killed them as they wanted to torture them to death. So they just started ripping the bodies apart.
Then a British SAS guy in his late 40’s to 50’s pulled up in an old WWII Land Rover painted Tan with a big bulky radio set in the back.
He first talked with the Mahajadin and then with us and told us that there was a Million Pound or dollar reward for a complete flying Mi-24 Hind and showing us how the controls worked on the downed one how easy it would be to just wait until they had one ready for takeoff and just run up to it, take out the crew and take off with it.
It cost the lives of everyone but me.
There is a lot more to this but I’m out of time.
But I did manage to make it back in one and an SAS pilot took it from there.
The four main guys were supposedly a four man A team who had served in Vietnam together, I never saw them fire a single shot at the Russians.
We all just had nicknames.
The first day that we were in Afghanistan the four man team was contracted to protect an ancient village.
We hit a Russian supply depot to get weapons, ammunition and supplies.
We made it to the village in the morning and almost as soon as we got there we were hit by four Mi-24 Hind helicopters diving in over some jagged rocking hills firing rocket pods into the village diving in four abreast.
There was an ancient dirt mound that could have at one time been a wall of about 30 foot tall that ran aground from jagged hills to the NE to the NW and down to the South into some rounded rocks.
The two Hinds to the South managed to pull out sooner and make it out of the dive.
The Hind to the North crashed into the ground after receiving heavy fire from small arms and maybe an RPG.
I was running an M1 Garand with black tip AP.
The kid was running an AK47 under folder.
The Interpreter was running a South African G3 that was really mine with black tip AP.
We were walking down the dirt mound / wall looking over what kind of defenses were there when this happened.
The last Hind had slid down so deep after its dive in the it was actually down lower than we were.
The kid was on the North the Interpreter was in the middle and I was on the South we all started firing at the Hind I knew that the pilot was up in the back, so I was firing right at him. I put five rounds of Ball M2 30-06 black tip Armor Piercing right into his windscreen. The Interpreter yelled out “Aim at the rotor!” Meaning the main blade rotor on the helicopter so my last three rounds were at it, as the rotatory cannon was working it’s way up the hillside at us the Hind barely managed to pull up enough to clear the mound.
I felt the spray of something just cover me on my left side as I drove to the ground to keep from getting hit by the stub load wings.
I got up the instant it passed over and loaded in a fresh 8 round E block clip and continued aimed fire at the rotor on the Hind, then I raised up the sight all of the way as I loaded in another clip and continued firing until that clip was empty as the Hind was about 1,500 yards away and seemed to be slowing down as I figured it was going to turn around and come back I loaded in another clip.
The Kid was just getting up off of the ground and seemed to be trying to figure out what had just happened.
I looked around for the Interpreter, a really tall skinny guy in his mid to late 20’s with a British accent, a cool guy in nice clothes well put together that I had only met that morning before the attack on the supply depot.
I looked down the slope to the West and he was blown to pieces by the gun on the Hind. His arms, legs and head was all that was left of him and what I had thought was hydraulic fluid from the Hind was actually his blood and body splattered all over me.
I didn’t know any better, but out of respect for him I went down the slope and slung the G3 and the Garand back around me and I started collecting the pieces of his body that remained and placing them on the flat top of the berm, I had gotten both of his arms and legs up on top and his head had gone further down the slope. As I went to pick up his head his hair had been bundled up and was probably about seven feet long and his head wrap had been blown off. I still remember his eyes they were like a golden color and looked deep into my soul as looked into them.
The Mahajadin fighters all went crazy and started yelling at me as one of them ran down the slope and grabbed his head away from me.
Apparently non Muslims are not allowed to touch their dead.
People from the village were crying and screaming as some others were chanting.
I remember a man in his 30’s holding a four or five year old girl in his arms up on top of what was left of like an adobe tan house holding her and chanting injured and bleeding himself.
Then there was like a screaming coming from where the Hind to the North had crashed, so me and the Kid ran up there.
As we got there several Mahajadin warriors were watching as a crew member from the Hind was completely on fire with helmet on. He had to be dead because he was completely on fire and burning apart.
Just then the Hind that we had been fighting at crashed into the ground about two miles away as the other two Hinds were in formation circling around with one trailing black smoke.
We all expected them to come back at us for another attack run , but they turned to the North and headed towards there mountain base.
So me and the Kid took off running for the one that had just gone down.
I got there first and the pilot and gunner were standing about 100 yards away from me and about 20 yards North of the Hind, they both had AK74’s. I lifted up my Garand and shot them both through the chest.
The Kid caught up and we both went to check out the Hind.
The Mahajadin fighters sowed up and were very upset that I had killed them as they wanted to torture them to death. So they just started ripping the bodies apart.
Then a British SAS guy in his late 40’s to 50’s pulled up in an old WWII Land Rover painted Tan with a big bulky radio set in the back.
He first talked with the Mahajadin and then with us and told us that there was a Million Pound or dollar reward for a complete flying Mi-24 Hind and showing us how the controls worked on the downed one how easy it would be to just wait until they had one ready for takeoff and just run up to it, take out the crew and take off with it.
It cost the lives of everyone but me.
There is a lot more to this but I’m out of time.
But I did manage to make it back in one and an SAS pilot took it from there.
