{"id":40010,"date":"2017-03-07T00:30:46","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T03:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/?p=40010"},"modified":"2017-03-24T23:55:52","modified_gmt":"2017-03-25T02:55:52","slug":"rescue-pedros-mary-jennings-hegar-humility-and-the-value-of-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/07\/rescue-pedros-mary-jennings-hegar-humility-and-the-value-of-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Rescue Pedros, Mary Jennings Hegar, Humility and the Value of Others"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Major MJ Hegar is a heroine. She saved not one but three<\/em> helicopter crews in Afghanistan, as well as multiple US ground troops, and she did so all while being abandoned in combat by her cowardly peers and held back from her true potential by The Man.<\/p>\n

At least, that seems to be\u00a0how her story is being told.<\/p>\n

US Air Force Major Mary Jennings Hegar was a US Air Force HH-60 helicopter rescue pilot in Afghanistan in 2009. (The Air Force rescue helos are know as Pedros — and, yes, they use a sombrero wearing mascot that would probably offend someone if they thought about it long enough.)<\/p>\n

On July 29, 2009,\u00a0her mission as the lead Pedro 15 went infamously sour. Hegar received a medal — and a Purple Heart — on that mission, and she now uses the story of that mission on the speaking circuit while she\u00a0advertises her upcoming book — the movie rights for which have already been optioned (Angelina Jolie is rumored for the role of Hegar). A recent publicity campaign article for her book describes her riveting personal story<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Maj. Mary Jennings Hegar, covered in blood and hanging off an Army rescue helicopter<\/strong>, saw the muzzle flash of a Taliban fighter and laid down a dozen glorious rounds of return fire<\/strong>…<\/p>\n

Hegar\u2019s own chopper had been shot down<\/strong> minutes earlier while rescuing three injured soldiers near the Afghan city of Kandahar.<\/p>\n

The Air National Guard vet survived the botched rescue operation and was awarded a Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross With Valor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not only that, she seems to think her wingman was a coward<\/a>:<\/p>\n

the pilot of Pedro 16 refused to land. According to Hegar, he had lost his nerve<\/strong>…<\/p>\n

She recalls the pilot of Pedro 16…had tried to lie his way out<\/strong> of his failure to act…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not only that,<\/em> but she did it all while the military she so sacrificially\u00a0served was unjustly trying to hold her back:<\/p>\n

Her most remarkable act of bravery came after she returned home, when the Texas native took a powerful stand against the military\u2019s ban on women in combat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Since it isn’t obvious from Hegar’s publicity materials, it is worth noting that Hegar was the co-pilot<\/strong> (the non-flying second-in-command, in a manner of speaking) of an HH-60G Pave Hawk with a crew of five<\/strong>, callsign Pedro 15 on that day in 2009. This is how the Air Force tells the same story<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Falling under heavy enemy fire, Pedro 15 dropped off a pararescue team and retreated from the hot landing zone. [Aerial Gunner TSgt Tiejie Jones<\/strong>] established critical communication with higher command and relayed the details of their dire situation.<\/p>\n

The Pedro 15 crew<\/strong> then voluntarily risked their lives to return and rescue their patients and pararescuemen from the ambush. Once on the ground, Pedro 15 started taking heavy machine gun fire, damaging multiple systems. The crew<\/strong> waited for the patients to be loaded before evacuating with the battered aircraft to safety.<\/p>\n

[Flight Engineer SMSgt Steven Burt<\/strong>] assessed the helicopter and urged a safe landing as soon as possible. Pedro 15 landed less than two miles away, where Burt and the pararescuemen transferred the patients to Pedro 16 which flew them to safety.<\/p>\n

[LtCol George Dona<\/strong>], Hegar<\/strong> and Jones<\/strong> were extracted on the skids of a U.S. Army OH-58 Kiowa helicopter. The actions of the crew<\/strong><\/span> on Pedro 15 saved the lives of the three patients and ensured the survival of the crew.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That version, which never<\/em> singles Hegar out, sounds a bit more team-oriented than Hegar’s version of events.<\/p>\n

It turns out that while Hegar has had the better publicist, she hasn’t been the only one to tell the story of that mission. Her pilot, LtCol Dona, mentioned the incident<\/a> in an interview in 2014:<\/p>\n

We took a sniper round through the window (and into my rib Kevlar protection) when picking up three injured US Army soldiers. We took off right away to avoid the gunfire and were unable to extricate the Army soldiers still on the ground.<\/p>\n

After deciding as a crew<\/strong> that our PAVEHAWK was still operational, and besides some blood on the console we were still operationally effective, we decided<\/strong> to go back into the middle of the firefight to get the injured. We flew in<\/strong> extremely low and fast, but took machine gun fire right away when landing in brownout conditions. We could hear the rounds going through the engine, airframe, and fuel tanks.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, we got the soldiers out<\/strong> but our fuel and hydraulics were too far damaged. It was hard to control the AC. We flew about two miles away and realized we couldn\u2019t go any further.<\/p>\n

I put it down quick<\/strong>; it was a slightly rough landing. As we all took a deep breath we came under fire from another hill. After 18 minutes of being defensive on the ground from gunfire, my wingman transloaded the wounded soldiers.<\/p>\n

My crew and I luckily latched on to the skids of an OH-58 Army gunship that was providing our cover.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dona used the first person singular only twice — referencing the bullet hitting his vest and taking\u00a0responsibility for the not-so-good landing (a landing, by the way, to which Hegar attributes a career-debilitating injury).<\/p>\n

The rest of the time he said “we.”<\/p>\n

Not only that, but his recollection and the Air Force article reveal some “simplification” in the way Hegar’s story has been portrayed.<\/p>\n

For example, her helicopter\u00a0wasn’t “shot down,” nor did it precisely “crash” as her\u00a0publicity materials claim.\u00a0 In fact, the helicopter on which she was riding\u00a0was actually shot “up” while on the ground, and her pilot<\/em> then took off and her pilot<\/em> flew it as far as he could before\u00a0he<\/em> landed.\u00a0 (Even Hegar described it this way<\/a> in 2009.)<\/p>\n

Notice, too, that their rescue came after about 18 minutes on the ground, which Dona described as “defensive” hunkering down. Despite being on the ground for that long, only as they were lifting off\u00a0on the Kiowa did Hegar — and she alone — discharge her weapon. She actually\u00a0seemed proud<\/a> of that fact:<\/p>\n

My crew from that day, we kind of tease each other [because] I was the actually the only person who returned fire that day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She uses that “return fire” as her lead-in to her activism on women in combat (and a prop for the title of her book), but the truth may be more complex.<\/p>\n

No one else fired their weapons, despite being right next to Hegar. Even Hegar wondered if she’d get in trouble for firing her weapon — which wouldn’t have been an issue\u00a0if she’d unquestionably needed<\/em> to fire her weapon.\u00a0 Given the context,\u00a0it seems more like\u00a0she was\u00a0raising a middle finger (via 5.56mm round) to the enemy as she left — not actually employing her weapon because it was necessary.<\/em> That’s not to say there was anything wrong<\/em> with her shooting her weapon\u00a0— in an active firefight, few would truly question\u00a0her claim of\u00a0muzzle flashes.\u00a0 But it hardly justifies framing her pot shots as an act of heroism — particularly when everyone around her appeared to shrug off the threat.<\/p>\n

To summarize:<\/p>\n