Darren "Doc" and Kate Dreher at the Aviation Ball
Through Facebook, I just saw that a friend I deployed with
in 2009-10 is off to another overseas adventure.
Darren “Doc” Dreher is a Blackhawk pilot. We first met
during training for deployment to Iraq. We were at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, getting
ready to fly to Kuwait and meet up with our helicopters and equipment. Then we
went into Iraq.
Like nearly everyone in the 28th Combat Aviation
Brigade, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, Doc is from the mid state, not the
city. He lives in vast 570 area code
that, together with 814 covers the majority of the population of the Keystone
State.
When Doc and I first started talking it was because one of
the other pilots let him know there was an old sergeant who was a liberal in
Echo Company. We started arguing about
whether the TEA Party were just the nicest, cleanest most well-behaved people
who ever graced the National Mall with their presence, or they were
out-of-the-closet racists trumpeting Birther and other conspiracies inflamed by
idiots like Glenn Beck. That was the starting point for several discussions.
Believe it or not, we kept talking. We could clear a room with soldiers rolling
their eyes about more political bullshit, but they could also see we were
having fun. Doc is smart and quick and
won most of our discussions. In fact, it
was pretty clear after a while that he continued the arguments for his own
amusement. He would smile just a little before announcing the latest outrage by
President Obama.
But Doc is not just razor wit and a pretty face (there were
many jokes about which of us was better looking), he was by every indication I
could see an amazing pilot. It seemed everyone wanted to fly with him, both
other flight crew members and the soldiers we carried on missions. One time I flew with Doc was up to Camp Garry
Owen on the Iran-Iraq border. On the
flight was Colonel Peter Newell, commander of the 4th Brigade, 1st
Armored, the unit that provided security for our main base at Camp Adder. Newell put his unit patch on the nose of
Doc’s Blackhawk helicopter. So when
Newell went to the border to oversee anti-smuggling operations or some other
mission, Doc was often his pilot.
"Doc" Dreher flying over the Ziggurat of Ur
Another time I got to fly with Doc was for a video camera
crew visiting Camp Adder. I think it was a British crew, but it may have been a
British cameraman working for an American network. The camera crew wanted to get a flyover shot
of the Ziggurat of Ur, a huge monument to the prophet Abraham that was close to
our base. The wind howled out of the
west most days. Doc hovered a hundred feet above the Ziggurat and a few miles
west with the aircraft perpendicular to the wind. When the cameraman was ready
to roll film, Doc trimmed the rotor blades and we flew sideways at 30 knots
with the doors fully open. It was spooky
and exciting to be moving only sideways. I had taken some weird twists and
turns flying in Army helicopters, but flying completely sideways was new to me.
After Iraq, I saw Doc only occasionally, if I happened to be
on flight when he was on duty, or at the annual Aviation Ball with his wife
Kate. He first introduced me to Kate as his “favorite liberal.” Wherever he is, I hope Doc finds another
liberal to argue with. Defending myself from Doc’s wit and encyclopedic
knowledge made me a better liberal. Thanks Doc!
I hope
my favorite conservative has a safe deployment. And Congratulations on your promotion to Chief Warrant Officer 5.
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