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Everyday Hero: CAPTF Mi-17 pilot rescues 3 in VBIED attack in Kabul

  • Published
  • By U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class (AW) Elizabeth Burke
  • a
KABUL, Afghanistan --  On Tuesday, May 18, 2010, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Olaf Holm was piloting one of two Afghan National Army Air Corps Mi-17 transport helicopters that were returning to Kabul from Gardez province, where they had stayed the night before due to adverse weather.

Lt. Col. Holm had just changed radio frequencies to speak with the Kabul International Airport control tower. The two helicopters were south of Kabul at an altitude of 300 feet when his Afghan flight engineer, Galabadin, told him there was an accident on the ground. Holm made repeated attempts to contact the lead helicopter by radio, but they were already passed the accident and couldn't be reached.

Lt. Col Holm looked down and saw a vehicle in flames. He circled to the left around the site and saw a second vehicle in flames. Holm would later learn this was the site where a suicide bomber had detonated his vehicle borne IED killing 18 people, including five Americans and one Canadian. Galabadin said they had to go look. Holm agreed and they circled again this time very low.

On this low pass, Holm saw American vehicles and Americans on the ground. He told his crew to prepare for landing. Holm made a quick survey of the area checking for power lines and obstacles. His biggest challenges were his co-pilot who was still in training and the helicopter was low on fuel. He landed in a grass field just 50 yards away from the site.

Once they had landed, Holm looked to his left and saw a burning vehicle through a hole in a stone wall created from the blast. He sent Galabadin to see what was going on. Holm didn't want to leave the aircraft with the new co-pilot in case something happened. After a few minutes, Holm sent his interpreter to help Galabadin communicate with the Americans.

After five minutes Holm, who gestured to his co-pilot to keep the collective down, went to see what was happening for himself. He climbed through the hole made by the blast and saw burning vehicles to his left and carnage everywhere. To his right, he saw where the first vehicle in the convoy had been. It was completely destroyed.

He didn't see any ambulances. The first American Holm came across took him to a wounded soldier sitting on the ground next to one of the SUVs. His uniform sanitized from his last mission, with the exception of an American flag, Holm identified himself to the soldier as an American and asked what he could do to help. Holm along with a French female soldier, who was part of the convoy, helped the soldier with to the helicopter escorted by a security detail of uninjured soldiers from one of the vehicles in the convoy.

Holm told the security detail to guard the helicopter, while he went back for more wounded. He found a Colonel and his Sergeant Major. The Colonel had a dressing on his neck and the Sergeant Major's face was covered in blood, but it was unclear if it was his blood or that of another casualty. Holm brought them to the helicopter through the debris and passed the four foot deep and 12 foot wide crater left by the blast. On the way to the helicopter, someone came up to the Colonel and handed him a handful of dog tags, "And his knees about buckled," Holm said.

Holm went back one more time to check for Afghan casualties. He called his Commanding Officer and asked that the 438th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group medical personnel meet him at the base hospital. The helicopter rotor had been turning this whole time and it was dangerously low on fuel. He returned to the helicopter and took off.

Once airborne, he immediately called the Kabul International Airport control tower and notified them that he was an urgent MEDEVAC with three patients: one critical, two ambulatory. The tower supervisor cleared the runway and requested an ambulance to meet the helicopter. As the helicopter taxied off the runway, low fuel warnings were coming on and there were failures in two of the main fuel pumps which meant they were dry. Holm parked the helicopter on the apron directly in front of the Hospital.

Unfortunately, things happened so fast that the ambulance hadn't arrived yet. So Holm and the casualties dismounted the helicopter and walked to the gate that separates the airfield from the hospital. The helicopter's rotor still turning Holm quickly returned to the helicopter once again and transferred it to the apron at the Air Corps base in case another MEDEVAC helicopter needed to park there.

Since becoming a pilot, he has flown UH-60 Blackhawk MEDEVAC helicopters for the ARMY as an Army Medical Service Corps officer and HH-60 Pavehawk Rescue helicopters for the Air Force.

"Generally in Pave MEDEVAC, you have a plan. You have communications with someone on the ground, you have an idea of the threat situation and there are medical personnel on the aircraft," Holm said. "Technically, the mission wasn't difficult; we just had to do something."

While the actions of Holm and the Afghan Mi-17 crew were heroic, this isn't the first time Holm has been in the right place at the right time. He flew one of a team of two Mi-17 helicopters to rescue victims of the Salang Pass avalanche rescue in February of this year and most recently in the search for the Pamir Airways Antonov-24 crash.

"My first concern is always to control the aircraft. When I saw the Americans on the ground I knew we had to go in. I was thinking I was going to land anyway, but when I saw the Americans my mind was made up," Holm said. "I was just disappointed we couldn't help more people."