More on Army reservists as Griffon (and Chinook) gunners/Taliban ops chief

Further to this post (and to Babbling's on reservists in Afstan generally), an Air Force news story:

Aircrew soldiers: Army Reservists fly as door gunners

Door-gunner Cpl Christopher Hinds of The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada in Toronto takes aim with a C-6 machine-gun before opening fire on the range from his position aboard a CH-146 Griffon helicopter. Credit: MCpl Robert Bottrill.

In the skies over Afghanistan, Army Reserve soldiers selected from the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group have revived an old Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) aircrew trade: the air gunner. Flying as helicopter door gunners, these soldiers are the first Canadian air gunners to go in harm's way since 1945.

Gunners have flown as aircrew since the First World War, and rose to their greatest prominence during the Second World War with the Halifax and Lancaster heavy bombers. A Lancaster crew included two gunners, one on top of the fuselage and one at the tail, and the Halifax carried three, with a nose turret as well as the tail and mid-upper positions.

In recent times, technology has replaced the air gunner in fixed-wing aircraft. Rotary aircraft are another matter, however, and the deployment of the CH-146 Griffons and CH-147 Chinooks to Kandahar has brought gunners back as integral members of helicopter crews. Helicopters flying missions in the outback of Afghanistan need gunners to protect the aircraft and their crews and cargoes. The gunner aboard a Griffon tactical helicopter also defends the transport helicopters and road convoys the Griffon escorts.

"Normally, in Canada, we operate CH-146 Griffons with a three-person crew: the aircraft captain, the first officer and the flight engineer," explained Captain Joe Rehberg, the deputy operations officer of the Canadian Helicopter Force Afghanistan. "It is the job of the flight engineer to control and operate the machine-gun on the Griffon back in Canada. Now, we are using an actual Army gunner on the machine-gun, giving us more flexibility and the maximum protection [emphasis added] that is required for the aircraft, crew and passengers."

The term "door-gunner" comes from the placement of two machine-guns in the doors of the Griffon, and three in the doors of the Chinook. In both types of helicopters, flight engineers handle the guns not operated by the door-gunner [emphasis added].

All the door-gunners in the Canadian Helicopter Force Afghanistan are combat arms soldiers. "I volunteered to serve with 3rd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group during Task-Force 3-08," said Corporal Christopher Hinds of The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada in Toronto. "I was training in Fort Bliss, Texas [see this link for the Discovery Channel TV documentary on that training], when my section commander told me that I had been selected to serve as a door-gunner. At first I didn't really understand what being a door-gunner involved; now I consider myself one of the luckiest soldiers in the Army."

Upon selection, the new door-gunners commenced a rigorous and extensive Air Force training plan to prepare them for operations.

"We had to learn aircraft operations and safety procedures as members of the flight crew," said Corporal Hinds. "We quickly learned that the Air Force has a different language from the Army."

Cpl Hinds admits that his civilian experience in auto parts sales helped him make the transition from infantry soldier to flight crew. "The door-gunner has to understand all the working parts of the aircraft in order to effectively monitor the aircraft, as well as watching for threats coming from the ground," he said. "The gunner continues to check the overall condition of the aircraft and reports any potential hazards or problems to the pilots."

Capt Rehberg has nothing but praise for the soldiers. "The door-gunner project has been an outstanding success," he said. "The door-gunners are an integral part of the flight crews, and we wouldn't want to fly missions without them. They are eager to learn and happy to be a part of a mission that protects Canadians and their coalition partners."

This fellow might be directing some bad guys the gunners encounter:

Taliban ops chief once held at Gitmo

Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, formerly Guantanamo prisoner No. 008, was among 13 Afghan prisoners released to the Afghan government in December 2007.

He is now known as Mullah Abdullah Zakir, a nom de guerre that Pentagon and intelligence officials say is used by a Taliban leader who is in charge of operations against U.S. and Afghan forces in southern Afghanistan [and Canadian, Brit, Dutch, Aussie, Danish et al.].

Rasoul is the latest example of a freed detainee who took a militant leadership role and a potential complication for the Obama administration's efforts to close the prison...

More bad guys:

Al Qaeda has expanded its presence in Afghanistan, taking advantage of the sinking security situation to resurface in the country it was forced to flee seven years ago, the top U.S. military intelligence official testified Tuesday.

Army Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, described Al Qaeda's efforts as one of the reasons for the Obama administration's decision last month to order additional troops to Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is no longer the haven for Al Qaeda that it was before the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. But in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Maples said, "I believe Al Qaeda's presence in Afghanistan is more significant, although still at a relatively minor scale, than we have seen in the past."..