In Iraq, OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter pilots from Schofield have flown more than 10,000 missions since January.

There are about 25 Kiowas with the 1st Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment in Iraq. The 25 Kiowas based out of Camp Taji just north of Baghdad make up the contingent of 25th Division helicopters. The Hawai'i Army National Guard's 14 Chinooks also are in use in the country.

The U.S. military is increasingly turning to attack helicopters to battle insurgents in Iraq, using low-flying tactics similar to those employed in Vietnam.

Most Kiowa missions in Iraq are flown "nap of the earth" to prevent becoming a target.

After rebels with shoulder-fired missiles took down a pair of helicopters, including a Chinook in a November 2003 incident that killed 16 U.S. troops, the Army stopped flying at high altitudes.

"Back in Hawai'i flying was for training. In Iraq, it's the real deal," Chief Warrant Officer Pete Mansoor, an aviator with 1-25, said several months ago. "It only takes one bad guy to ruin your day, so we fly low and fast to avoid our exposure en route to the objective area."

The 25th Infantry Division (Light) aviators from Hawai'i's "Lightning Attack" have maintained the highest operational tempo of any aviation unit since the start of the war.

There has been plenty of danger for Lightning Attack, which focuses on reconnaissance, security and close-combat attack. The Kiowa helicopters carry a .50-caliber heavy machine gun and can fire Hellfire or Stinger missiles and rockets.

On Oct. 16, two 25th Division Kiowas collided and crashed in a farm field south of Baghdad's airport.

Capt. Christopher B. Johnson, 29, and Chief Warrant Officer William I. Brennan, 36, were killed, and the two other pilots, Chief Warrant Officers Chad Beck and Greg Crow, were rescued in a harrowing recovery.

An Apache Longbow crew responded to the distress call, and the two-seat helicopter was able to land about a football field's distance from the crash site.

Armed with a 9 mm pistol and M-4 carbine, Capt. Ryan Welch of the 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment stumbled through a field of potholes and brush for about 10 minutes before finding the injured pilots, who had moved away from the crashed aircraft.

Welch put Crow in the front seat of the helicopter and roped Beck and himself to the wasplike fuselage next to the cockpit of the Apache for the 90-mph, 12-mile trip to Forward Operating Base Falcon, the closest base with a combat support hospital.

"I only had my night visor on," Welch said. "I thought my eyes were going to rip out of my sockets and that my nose would tear from my face, the wind was so strong."

Earlier in the year, on April 8, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Cody Sharp and and Chief Warrant Officer Jason Ray were conducting reconnaissance and security in the western portion of Baghdad.

Arriving on station, Sharp and Ray began receiving heavy small-arms fire, said Capt. Jeffrey D. McCoy, who also is with 1-25.

Machine-gun fire severed a portion of Sharp's index finger and tore into the pilot's forearm. Ray received a bullet wound to his right biceps. The aircraft spiraled to the ground, but both crew members were able to get out before it was destroyed by two enemy rocket-propelled grenades.

Sharp, recovering from his injuries in his home state of Texas, was able to throw out the first pitch in the June 12 Texas Rangers vs. St. Louis Cardinals game.

In Afghanistan, helicopters do the bulk of the heavy lifting, and choppers like the big twin-rotor CH-47 Chinooks of Company B, 214th Aviation Regiment out of Wheeler Army Airfield are much in demand.

"The aviation support provided in (Operation Enduring Freedom) is the workhorse for our operations here because road infrastructure is virtually nonexistent," said Maj. Stacy Bathrick, an Army spokeswoman for Combined Joint Task Force 76 in Bagram, outside Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. "We rely heavily on helicopter airlift to get people and equipment throughout the country."

In Afghanistan, the division has about 30 Black Hawks, 10 Chinooks and 15 Kiowas.

Since February in Iraq, the 1st Cavalry Division's aviation brigade — to which Hawai'i's 1-25 is attached — has flown more than 50,000 hours in its nearly 100 helicopters, the highest airborne rate in division history.

Flight time logged in Afghanistan is equally impressive. Task Force Wings, which includes UH-60 Black Hawks with the 2nd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment and Chinooks from Hawai'i, along with Apaches and Marine and other helicopters, also has recorded more than 50,000 hours since May 15. That's when Col. Shannon Davis, the 25th Aviation Brigade commander, took command of the task force.

In Iraq, Lt. Col. Michael Lundy, the 1-25 commander, said in a recent newsletter to families back home that helicopters were feared during Saddam Hussein's rule because they were an instrument of oppression. But now Iraqi people — especially children — wave enthusiastically to the crews.