Highlights

Apaches over Iraq

Photos By Dan McClinton

Our member Dan McClinton is once again deployed in Iraq. While over there he uses any chance he gets to put his camera to use. Recently one of his shots made the cover of "Crossed Sabers", the newspaper of the 1st Cavalry Division. Dan describes the shot below:

For those who don't know I fly AH-64D Longbow Apache attack helicopters for the Army. I am currently deployed with 1-227th ARB, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Hood, TX.

Since I graduated from flight school I have taken my camera with me
whenever i fly, and Iraq has been no exception. Over here I take my Nikon D200 with me, and so far it has been more than up to the task.

Usually, my photo opportunities lie during the periods of time at the end
of a mission cycle. The day I took this picture was no different. We were headed back to refuel, and as you can tell it was a rather dusty day...so the sky had that orange, tannish look to it. I have been trying to get shots of our decoy flares deploying and thought that the setting sun would make a great background, so I positioned my aircraft to get the shot that i wanted and then had the other aircraft deploy flares on a three count. It was actually pretty easy...especially when you can control everything except the weather.