The unit conducted airmobile artillery raids, troop movements, flare drops, fire-base insertions and extractions, IFR airdrops, and flight support and aircraft recovery missions.

We knew we could kill the enemy if they showed themselves, so we thought the greater risk was crashing a helicopter in the unfamiliar and harsh terrain at 9,000 feet of altitude.Chinook and Blackhawk aircraft from 159th Aviation Brigade provided direct lift support for Operation Anaconda.

U.S. Army intelligence had located a large number of Taliban and al Qaeda personnel operating in the Shah-e-Kot Valley, near the Pakistani border.

As resupply was not guaranteed at the time, the onboard infantry were heavily laden with ample food, water, cold-weather clothing, night-vision and communications equipment in addition to weapons and ammunition.

The helicopters would land just after the start of morning nautical twilight, as mission planners weighed the options of attacking under the cover of darkness or during daylight hours.

Reinforcements hovering outside the objective area could no longer be safely inserted due to intense ground fire, and supply drops for friendly positions were likely to be shot down.

Though only two Apaches remained serviceable to provide support, 24-hours of air force bombing began to have an effect and Taliban attacks slowly diminished.

[31] A mixed composition air convoy of 200 Black Hawk, Apache, Chinook and Kiowa helicopters from 159th and 101st Aviation regiments landed at two forward bases, unloading infantry soldiers and refueling.

Later this same day, the Screaming Eagles made their first attack deep inside Iraq, using dozens of helicopters to hit an Iraqi armored brigade about 100 miles southwest of Baghdad, reported a CNN correspondent embedded with the 101st.

The 159th CAB reorganized as Task Force Thunder, and as the only U.S. Aviation Brigade operating in Afghanistan at the time assumed responsibility for an area the size of Texas.

The joint, coalition based task force included 138 helicopters, 7 un-manned aerial systems (UAVs), and 28 various fixed wing aircraft with an oversight relationship for Polish, French and Czech Aviation units.

In addition, the unit executed more than 2,400 MEDEVAC missions, moving over 2,800 patients from point of injury to appropriate care facilities[40] FOB Blessing and COP Vegas were located within the Korengal Valley, in Eastern Afghanistan.

This likely saved the lives of several of the wounded Soldiers on board, as otherwise medical crews would have been forced to spend time improvising an HLZ or even remove casualties individually from the air.

The aircrew and ground forces at FOP Blessing became nervous that insurgents would launch a mortar attack on the vulnerable airframe at first light, in an attempt to set the aviation fuel inside ablaze.

Fortunately, the crew was able to self-repair the damage to the hydraulics, then limped back to Bagram Airbase, an hour and a half long harrowing flight.

Everything was burning down.159th CAB Aviators from Task Force Pale Horse (7-17 Cavalry) provided direct air support to the ground troops during the attack on COP Keating on 3 October 2009.

Because of the extremely small size of the one-hundred meter outpost, the landing zone was located 'outside the wire' - a common expression for being outside the defensive perimeter in an unsecure area.

More troublingly, OP Fritsche could offer no support to neighboring COP Keating as the force was cut off by heavy enemy machine gun and RPG fire from within the valley.

As a result, the attack aircraft engaged some thirty armed individuals just outside a large visible breach in the defensive works of COP Keating.

The Apaches remained on-station for approximately 90 minutes taking repeated damage from small arms fire and eventually running out of ammunition.

[49] As a result of small arms damage, the Apache crews were forced to switch aircraft upon returning to FOB Bostick rather than simply rearming and refueling.

This had the fortunate side-effect of allowing the crews several minutes to return to the nearby unit TOC, exchange maps and information of the situation, and learn of the most recent real-time intelligence regarding events on the ground.

The Apaches returned to COP Keating and began engaging a mixed group of 25 enemy fighters in and around the nearby police station and mosque.

Overcast weather from an incoming thunder storm allowed the pilots to clearly see muzzle flashes from small arms and DShK heavy machine guns directed at them and friendly ground forces.

After approximately a one-hour weather hold, 159th CAB aircraft returned to the area one final time that day to further support ground forces with Apache fire and conduct one further reinforcement of OP Fritsche.

During the deployment, Task Force Thunder made history when it became the first CAB to receive, integrate, and execute fixed-wing movements with Alenia C-27J Spartans and electronic attack missions with Beechcraft C-12 Caesar aircraft.

On 22 March 2012 the 159th CAB redeployed to Fort Campbell, Kentucky and, for the first time in five years, the entire 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) was "back home" together.

TF Thunder Medevac flights were based out of Kandahar Airfield, Camp Bastion, and several small combat outposts in Helmand, Uruzgun, and Zabul provinces.

During the summer of 2011, TF Thunder partnered with Task Force Strike (2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division) and later Task Force Mountain (10th Mountain Division), and TF Thunder Medevac aircraft were repeatedly engaged at ranges of 100 meters or less by small arms and rocket propelled grenade fire in the claustrophobic Arghandab River and Helmand River valleys.

[56] TF Thunder Medevac crews learned to cooperate closely with infantry ground forces to establish a tight security perimeter around a given HLZ.