Sihadsang was piloting the massive Chinook, flying over the armored division.
In the darkness, green shadows could be vaguely seen; the temporary airdrop base had already been established.
Following the formation, he landed in sequence. Countless Iranian soldiers immediately rushed over, opened the hatch, and moved the ammunition and oil drums carried in the cabin; ten tons of supplies were moved in no time.
Had these army grunts fought so hard today that they'd lost even their last bit of balls? Sihadsang thought.
After unloading the cargo, Sihadsang piloted the Chinook back to Ahvaz.
The Chinook is a tandem-rotor helicopter with great transport capacity, practically a flying aerial transport truck. Operating such a large helicopter requires a crew of at least three, even with relatively advanced automated electronic equipment.
One pilot and one captain occupied the two seats in the forward cockpit. The equipment at both stations was identical, making it convenient for the two to switch flying duties at any time.
Behind them was a flight engineer, monitoring the helicopter's various performance indicators at all times. In front of his seat was a large array of mechanical instruments.
However, this transport mission was urgent. Sihadsang was the captain, but the pilot in his crew had undergone surgery for acute appendicitis, leaving the heavy responsibility of flying the aircraft to him.
Behind him was the flight engineer, Kusne.
Both were devout Shia Muslims who held religious leader Khomeini in high esteem. Therefore, despite being one crew member short, they resolutely followed their superiors' orders, taking off to transport supplies and save the armored division on the ground.
In the evening, the two Cobras serving as their escort had crashed under unknown circumstances, likely the work of an Iraqi infiltration squad. Consequently, their superiors instructed them to remain highly vigilant to prevent similar occurrences.
However, on a night like this, only those equipped with low-light night vision goggles similar to theirs, or anti-aircraft missiles, could pose a threat to them.
The Iraqis' field air defense was very poor, so as long as there were no planes in the sky, they had nothing to fear.
Iraq followed the Soviet military's air defense doctrine, with air defense units deployed entirely within the national borders, while the air force primarily handled aerial threats outside the borders.
This had one advantage: there was almost no need for communication between air defense units and aircraft, and friendly fire incidents were avoided. Anything outside the borders was left to the fighters, while anything inside was handled by the surface-to-air missile units.
However, this arrangement was clearly too rigid. Aircraft moved too fast and could easily breach the border and fly directly into the country. The air defense units might only get off a few rounds of missiles before the planes reached Baghdad.
Thus, since the start of the war, Iran's air force had maintained an advantage, until the current severe shortage of spare parts.
Internally implementing strict Muslim rule and externally resisting the Great Satan United States, all the American-made weapons equipped by the military had lost their source of spare parts.
There were very few Cobras left that could still take off to provide the most effective support for the army. Now that two more had gone missing, the command was very annoyed.
The return flight was boring. Sihadsang looked outside idly while piloting.
Although the night was pitch black, as long as there was starlight or moonlight, these low-light night vision goggles could amplify the faint light outside and display it on the green eyepieces—green being the most beneficial color for protecting human eyes.
However, wearing these goggles for a long time made the eyes very uncomfortable. So, after confirming his course, he took off the goggles and rubbed his aching eyes.
Suddenly, he saw a bright light on the pitch-black marshland!
What was that? Sihadsang was curious. The marshland was peaceful everywhere right now. Ahead, two steel giants were dueling, and there was no other personnel activity elsewhere. What could it be?
"Kusne, look what's down there?" Sihadsang said.
Kusne took a cold look. It was a fire. Such a fire could only have been lit intentionally, indicating someone was there. However, at their current altitude of several hundred meters, they couldn't see what it was at all.
"Let's fly down and take a look," Sihadsang said.
"Captain, our main mission now is to deliver supplies to the armored division. We still have another flight to make," Kusne said.
Sihadsang glanced down and had to let it go. However, his heart was full of curiosity.
"Your Excellency Qusay, your method doesn't seem to be working?" said the "wounded man" lying on the ground, his chest covered in blood.
Qusay was also feeling depressed. He had heard so many helicopters flying by just now; it must have been that formation returning. Yet, with such an obvious signal down here, the other party hadn't noticed?
It was all because their rescue equipment was non-existent. If they even had a flare gun, they could have fired a distress flare when the other party flew over to catch their attention.
Now, having listened with hope as they flew toward them and then away again, it really felt terrible.
The soldiers hidden nearby were also somewhat disappointed. Although the captain was usually clairvoyant, this time seemed a bit too simplistic. Would this really work?
If they had advanced night vision goggles, those hidden to the side would definitely be discovered. However, the night vision technology of this era was still very backward. The most glaring issue was that they couldn't handle bright light. The purpose of night vision goggles is to amplify faint light, but if there's a strong light, it gets amplified even more, which would burn out the goggles. Actually, adding overload protection would solve it, but it just hadn't been done yet.
Therefore, it was relatively safe to ambush people not far from the fire. If the other party wanted to observe them, they would have to take off their night vision goggles and search visually.
Wait, they had to keep waiting. They couldn't go anywhere in this darkness anyway. If this method didn't work, it wouldn't be too late to march on foot once it got light.
Slowly, Qusay began to feel sleepy, his eyelids starting to droop.
Back at the Ahvaz base, they loaded up with cargo again, but the second takeoff was delayed. Because the night was too dark and the night vision goggles' effectiveness had diminished, taking off rashly carried great risk.
It wasn't until after four in the morning that Sihadsang was cleared to take off again, following the formation to transport the second batch of supplies.
Since he was flying solo, he was very exhausted and flew in the last sortie.
By the time they finished unloading supplies for the armored division and headed back, the sky was beginning to brighten.
Returning along the same route once more, Sihadsang perked up. As he flew over the fire he had seen last night, he saw that the flames had turned into thick smoke, appearing even clearer in the newly brightening sky.
Not far from the fire was a crashed Cobra. Seeing this, his heart sank.
Then, he saw two people between the fire and the crashed Cobra. One of them had a blood-red chest, while the other was guarding beside him. Both were wearing flight suits.
"It's our fellow pilots. I'm going to save them," Sihadsang said.
"Captain, we should report to our superiors. They will send someone to rescue them. It's dangerous for us to go down rashly like this. Moreover, the situation below is unclear; it's not suitable to take risks," Kusne said.
His analysis was not without merit.
However, Sihadsang didn't see it that way. He had already discovered the fire last night and saw it again this morning. If there were really a problem, these two brothers would surely have moved. Looking at the situation now, one was seriously injured. By the time it was reported and someone was sent, this brother might not last that long. He even felt some regret; if he had been able to come down last night and pick up his compatriot, they might be out of danger by now.
"No, we're going down to save our fellow Muslims," Sihadsang said.
The Chinook was now empty and very agile, and two more people wouldn't be much. Sihadsang pushed the control stick, and the massive Chinook began to descend.
Under the training of American instructors, most of the Iranian Air Force possessed that unique brand of individual heroism like American cowboys. Sometimes they were even encouraged to do so. If it were the Iraqi army, they would certainly have reported it through the proper channels; this was another difference between the two militaries.