Kayla+H.+&+Kelsie+S.+-+Christopher+Henson

** __Kayla Henson + Kelsie Salem__ ** ** __Christopher Henson__ **
 * __Veterans History Project Interview Questions__ **
 * __A few biographical details:__ **
 * 1) ** When and where were you born? **
 * 2) ** Please Describe what your childhood was like? **
 * 3) ** What do your parents do for a job? **
 * 4) ** Do you have any siblings? What gender? **
 * 5) ** What did you do before you joined the service? **
 * 6) ** Did you enlist in the army or were you drafted? **
 * 7) ** Do you have any family members that enlisted in the Army? **
 * 8) ** Why did you enlist? **
 * 9) ** When did you enter into the service? **


 * __Early Days of Service:__ **
 * 1) ** Where did you go for basic training? **
 * 2) ** Tell us about a regular day at basic training? **
 * 3) ** Do you have a stereotypical one or was your sergeant nice? **
 * 4) ** Do you have any stories that really stand out in your mind that you would like to tell us about your drill sergeant? **
 * 5) ** Do you have any stories that really stand out in your mind that you would like to tell us about basic training? **
 * 6) ** When did you know you wanted to become a pilot? Was there a certain experience that you would like to share? **
 * 7) ** Why did you choose to become a pilot? **
 * 8) ** What did you have to do for training so that you could become a pilot? **
 * 9) ** Where was flight school? **
 * 10) ** What was flight school like? **
 * 11) ** How long were you in flight school? **
 * 12) ** Was flight school challenging? **
 * 13) ** Tell us about a typical day in flight school. **
 * 14) ** Did you have any extra training after flight school? **
 * 15) ** Where did you learn to fly Chinooks? **


 * __Wartime Service:__ **
 * 1) ** What was your reaction when you heard you were getting deployed? **
 * 2) ** How did your family react to your deployment? **
 * 3) ** What did you have to carry? **
 * 4) ** How much did you have to pack? Was it all military uniforms? **
 * 5) ** What was your first mission or your first experience being deployed? **
 * 6) ** Does it stand out to you or do you have a favorite experience? **
 * 7) ** Were all you deployments the same? What was different? **
 * 8) ** Tell us a typical day in your deployments? **
 * 9) ** Was your uniform different that everyone's else's? **
 * 10) ** Was it hard to distinguish between friends and enemies? **
 * 11) ** Did you ever get shot at while flying? **
 * 12) ** We know that you fly but what did the Chinooks do overseas that was exciting to you? **
 * 13) ** What was something that may be different than you do in the US if you were flying? **
 * 14) ** What was the communication with your families at your base that you were stationed at? **
 * 15) ** Did you ever make friends while you were with your unit in a deployment? **
 * 16) ** Did you keep in touch with your old unit buddies when you were deployed and when you got back to the US too? **
 * 17) ** What was your assignment or what were you commanded to do overseas? **
 * 18) ** Were there any casualties at your stationed area?if so, how did you deal with that? **
 * 19) ** Some soldiers come back and have posttraumatic stress disorder. What did you do to keep yourself from not having that in dealing with the things that you saw when overseas? **
 * 20) ** When you working overseas what were the hours like? **
 * 21) ** Did you get a lot of sleep when overseas? **
 * 22) ** What was the living situation when you were stationed overseas? **
 * 23) ** What supplies did you carry when deployed? **
 * 24) ** Did you get an R&R? If so, how many times during each deployment? **
 * 25) ** Did you have a favorite experience? **
 * 26) ** Do you have a more memorable/eye opening memory? **


 * __War’s End, Coming Home:__ **
 * 1) ** Was the adjustment harder going to or coming back from overseas? **
 * 2) ** What did you do for your job when you came home? **
 * 3) ** Did you have any time off right after you got home? **
 * 4) ** Did you stay at any other countries on your way home from overseas? **
 * 5) ** How long was the separation between deployments? **


 * __Reflections:__ **
 * 1) ** Do you have any regrets from your service? **
 * 2) ** If you had the chance to go back knowing what you know now, would you choose to join the Army and be a Pilot again? **
 * 3) ** Please tell me about your uniform, medals and any pictures you have. **
 * __Extra:__ **
 * 1) ** How do you advance in ranking? **
 * 2) ** What courses did you have to take to get to the ranking(CW3) you are at now? **
 * 3) ** Where have you flown to in the US? **


 * Veterans History Transcript - Christopher Henson **
 * Kayla’s Part: **
 * Kelsie: Hello I am Kelsie Salem **
 * Kayla: and I am Kayla Henson and today, on February 2, 2015, we are interviewing Christopher Henson. He was born on July 7,1980 and served in the war on terrorism in the US army. **
 * Kelsie: His highest rank is the Chief Warrant Officer 3. We are interviewing Kayla’s dad in Richland, PA. This interview is being conducted for the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress. **
 * Kayla: Where were you born? **
 * Henson: I was born in Murray, Utah. I mean Provo Utah. **
 * Kelsie: Please describe what your childhood was like. **
 * Henson: We moved around a lot. My dad traveled for work. I lived in Florida, and he got a job promotion with a company, and we moved to New York. Then when I was about nine years old, we moved to Michigan where we stayed until I graduated high school and I joined the military. **
 * Kayla: What do you parents do for a job? **
 * Henson: My dad used to be a high school science teacher, and then transitioned working into the medical field. He worked for the guy that invented MRI, Raymond Damadian and traveled around the country teaching people how to use MRI machines. Then managed a facility in Michigan where we moved there and then started his own consulting business. They're their own business owners now. **
 * Kelsie: Do you have any siblings? **
 * Henson: Yes I am the oldest of four children. I have a sister who's a year younger, Catherine, my brother Jon, then my youngest brother Brian. **
 * Kayla: What did you do before you joined the service? **
 * Henson:I was a regular kid in high school. I actually joined the Michigan National Guard when I was in highschool, so I did regular stuff like play sports and football and baseball and band. **
 * Kelsie: Did you enlist in the Army or were you drafted? **
 * Henson: I joined as an enlistee when I was 17. **
 * Kayla:Do you have any family members that enlisted in the Army too? **
 * Henson:I do not know of any family members that enlisted. I had an uncle that was drafted during the Vietnam War and then both of my grandfathers served, one was in the Navy and one was in the Air force during World War II and Korea. **
 * Kelsie:Why did you enlist in the Army? **
 * Henson:I always wanted to be in the military. I always wanted to be a pilot. At the time i decided it was a good time to get in to the National Guard while I was in Highschool, my time and service would start and I could get some training early on and work toward my eventual goal of being a pilot and a servicemember. **
 * Kayla: Where did you go for basic training? **
 * Henson: I went to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri in the summer of 1998. I actually spent my birthday there. **
 * Kelsie:Tell us about a regular day at basic training. **
 * Henson: It was a lot of physical training, a lot of running and push-ups, and calisthenics. Then kind of worked through, they teach you a lot of attention to detail stuff, just following instructions, a lot of medical training, weapons training, learning how to shoot, a lot of small unit tactical stuff, a lot of fun but a lot of work. **
 * Kayla: Did you have a stereotypical sergeant or was your sergeant nice? **
 * Henson: I think you are talking about the drill sergeants. I think they were pretty stereotypical, pretty standoffish, pretty demanding. What was kind of cool was when I got on my first deployment, I actually ran into my drill sergeant on the streets of a town in Kosovo, on a foot patrol. So that was kinda cool, like years later to run into my drill sergeant. **
 * Kelsie:Do you have any stories that really stand out in your mind that you would like to tell us about your drill sergeant? **
 * Henson: Not my drill sergeant but I do remember another drill sergeant one day. A soldier found a ring. We were somewhere at some training site and he had found a ring and gave it to somebody, it was another female soldier in training. And I remember this one drill sergeant asked him why he gave this other female soldier a ring and then he proceeded to tell them that he was not only a drill sergeant but he was an ordained minister and in the state of Missouri he could marry them. So he made them stand on the table, in the middle of the chow hall, while we are eating. And then he did like a mock marriage ceremony and told him he could kiss the bride and threw rice all over the dining facility, which I thought was really funny. I was trying not to laugh, so I didn’t get in trouble too. **
 * Kayla:When did you know you wanted to become a pilot? Was there a certain experience that you would like to share? **
 * Henson:No, I've always wanted to be a pilot. My grandfather was a pilot when I was a kid, I just had an uncle who went to the Air Force Academy as well. It was just something I have always wanted to do.I always wanted to fly airplanes, but I didn’t have perfect vision. So I wanted to actually go to the Naval Academy and be a Naval Pilot but I didn’t have perfect vision. Then I found out that the Army you didn’t have to have perfect vision to be a pilot. So, I decided to do that, and my first year at annual training in the National Guard I got to fly on a huey which was really fun with some old Vietnam helicopter pilots that were pretty good pilots and that got me really excited again to pursue that. **
 * Kelsie:What did you have to do for training so that you could become a pilot? **
 * Henson: The first step is I had to go after basic training and my other jobs I had in the Army. I had to go to warrant officer candidate school to be a warrant officer and that was eight weeks. It was kind of like basic training but for officers to make you an officer and then flight school went through a process. So, in the beginning, you just learn the basics of helicopters and flying and a lot of academics. Usually about we spend about half the day in school and the other half was spent in actual flying or flight training. So from there, you progress into instruments where you learn how to fly in the clouds, not being able to see anything outside, just using instruments. Then when I graduated that I went to what they called BCS, or basic combat skills where I was able to be qualified to be an Aero Scout Pilot and they teach how to fly tactical and do mission plans and then you progress into night vision flying. Once I completed that, I had to go to a basic course or an officer ship school for a few weeks. Once I graduated the Warrant officer course, then I was granted my designation as an aviator and got my pilot's wings and I went to a course for my advanced airframe, which was the CH-47, where I learned that specific helicopter. **
 * Kayla: Where was Flight School? **
 * Henson:Flight school was in Fort Rucker, Alabama. **
 * Kelsie: How long were you in Flight School? **
 * Henson: I started May. There was actually a delay between the Warrant officer candidate school and Flight school because I got married and moved my wife and daughters down there. So there was a two month delay. I started in May and I graduated from the AQC for the Ch-47 in November. So about a year and a half. **
 * Kayla:Was Flight school challenging for you? **
 * Henson: I think I enjoyed it. The hardest part was the instrument phase because there was a lot of stress on me, and I didn’t enjoy flying in the clouds and not being able to see things. It was very stressful.But also, BCS was probably the most fun because we got to fly solo. One time he let me and one of the students take a helicopter out without a teacher so that was pretty fun. **
 * Kelsie:Did you have any extra training after flight school? **
 * Henson:Yes, I’ve had a lot of classes after that. After my deployment to Iraq, we got the new version of the Chinook. It’s called the Fox model or Ch-47F, which a glass cockpit with a flight instructor, a lot of advancements to make it safer and give us some more capability. So that was a transition course that I took. After my second trip to Iraq, I went to the Warrant officer advanced course., which is another officer ship development course. I went to the CH-47 or D instructor pilot course, and then an F model pilot course transition. I did that then I went to Fort Bragg, North Carolina and when I was getting ready to go to Afghanistan, we went to the high altitude power management course and then the high altitude mountain training course, which was put on by a unit level training to learn how to fly tactically in high mountains and altitudes. And then since then I came back and my transition to the National Guard and I went to the instructor basic course, the army basic instructor course to teach me to be a better instructor. Then I also went to the warrant officer staff course which is a course with grave level and officer development for warrant officers. **
 * Kayla: Where did you learn to fly chinooks? **
 * Henson: My chinook training for CH-47D occurred at Fort Rucker Alabama. When we got the fox model chinook, that training came to Fort Hood and that was conducted at by duty stationed at Fort Hood Texas. **
 * Kelsie: What was your reaction when you heard you were getting deployed? **
 * Henson: It was kind of a mixed emotion. My first deployment occurred actually when I was in the National Guard right, after high school I was in college, and I was kind of excited a little bit nervous and apprehensive obviously I was going away for the first time. It got a little bit easier at least on my own personal side but then my subsequent appointments were a little bit more nervous because of having a family and kids and the stress that that’s involved in making sure that you want them to be taken care of and to be safe while you’re gone and obviously the implications for your family while you’re gone make it a little bit more stressful. **
 * Kayla: How did your family react to your deployment? **
 * Henson: My first deployment I think it was kind of okay, I think my parents didn’t want me to go. My mom probably cried a little bit, and then the subsequent deployments obviously your wife and kids never want you to leave home. So usually there is some tears involved and it’s a little bit stressful but it’s always fun to come home. **
 * Kelsie: What did you have to carry when you were deployed? **
 * Henson: A lot of junk, the army gives you a lot of stuff and not all of it’s useful. Probably the worst thing I always remember was when we go to Iraq we would fly from Kuwait into Iraq but so we had body armor to fly to keep us safe when we’re flying. But then we would have to carry like regular body armor for ground soldiers that weighs just as much if not more but I would never wear it, I would always get to wherever I was going and it would stay in my duffle bag under my bed in my room the entire time so it was just an extra 80 pounds of garbage that I never had to use. But we would typically carry all of our stuff to fly and any other equipment that we might need. Usually personal stuff to get us through the first month or two until we got our containers usually most of the rest of the stuff would be shipped in a container and we would have to carry enough stuff to live for about two months. **
 * Kayla: How much did you have to pack, was it all military uniforms? **
 * Henson: No, most of it was military stuff. My wife always made me butterscotch chip cookies every time before I went on the airplane so I always had to leave room for that. And then personal gear and stuff, usually a computer and some other stuff so we could enjoy watching movies and email and text or respond with family at home. **
 * Kelsie: What was your first mission or first experience being deployed? **
 * Henson: My first experience being deployed was in Kosovo during Operation Joint Guardian. I don’t remember like the first mission out, I just remember getting there. It was still being built up at the time. It was relatively new. It was a K41 Bravo so it was the second rotation of troops in the Kosovo. But I just remember being a very different, you know the bus ride there and then going out, every time I’d drive out I was a Chapel’s Assistant, it was my first job so I was kind of like a bodyguard for the Chaplins. I would drive them around, I just remember a very undeveloped country and being grateful for how good we live as opposed to a lot of other people. **
 * Kayla: What were the rights, like women’s rights, like in the places you were deployed? **
 * Henson: In most of the places I deployed most of the women had little to no rights. Parts of Kosovo were different in that there was kind of two different ethnic groups. You had, you had the Ethnic Albanians which were predominantly Muslim and subscribed to a lot of the Muslim traditions, more or less. Then you had the Orthodox which were a Greek Orthodox typically and they were more Christian and were a little bit more Christian in their views. However, still a very undeveloped third world country with pretty defined gender roles. Iraq and Afghanistan are very very typical to what you would expect on the news, very subservient to a lot of Burkas not being allowed to go out without a male family member kind of all the traditional things that you would associate with most of the Muslim faith. **
 * Kelsie: Were all your deployments the same, and what was different about your deployments? **
 * Henson: No, the first deployment was different in that I was a Chaplon’s assistant and I was on the ground. I got to travel around the area a lot and meet people and talk to local people. My second deployment was to Pakistan and that was a humanitarian disaster relief after an earthquake. I didn’t really get to interact with many of the local people. Some of the Pakistan air force officers we would meet with but that was about the extent in Iraq and Afghanistan very little interaction with the actual local people. I got to see more of the country because I flew obviously but those deployments were at Kosovo. Iraq and Afghanistan were all very long deployments. Pakistan was a very short deployment that was only two months. **
 * Kayla: Tell us a typical day in your deployment. **
 * Henson:Typically day for flying deployments. We'd get up and most of my deployments we worked at night because it was safer to fly at night. Typically we'd get up anywhere from 2 in the afternoon to 4 or 5 in the evening usually get yourself dressed and ready to go, brush your teeth, hygiene. Then typically we'd go eat dinner first then we'd go to our tactical operation center and get our mission for the day, what we were going to do that night. We'd go plan the mission. We'd do a risk assessment then do a briefing where we'd do an update on a situation, enemy/friendly, what was going on in the area, what threats there were. We'd get an update for weather to see if it will be safe to fly and then we would go out to our aircraft and preflight, make sure everything was ok with the helicopter, brief our crew members on what the mission was and we'd go fly out mission and it would be anywhere from a couple hours to seven hours or more at night. Eight or more hours during the day if we did fly. Then we'd come back, we'd usually post flight and preflight the helicopter, make sure nothing broke during the flight, make sure we took care of any maintenance that needed to be done. Then we'd go back, debrief tell them of any incidents, if we'd been shot at, any new threats, If anything changed from the mission that was supposed to accomplish it to what we did. They usually eat and go to bed. Sometimes we would play Xbox before bed. **
 * Kelsie’s Part: **
 * Kelsie: Was your uniform different than anyone elses? **
 * Henson: Most of the time the uniforms were the same one we went to rock the first time, we actually got to be real pilots and wear flight suits. After my first deployment, the army started to really push these which are like an A2C,it's like an aviation combat uniform, that makes us look like more ground soldiers. I'm not as big of a fan, I like being a pilot. **
 * Kayla: Was it hard to distinguish between friends and enemies? **
 * Chris: My first deployment it wasn't. Subsequent deployments it became a lot more difficult because a lot of times the Iraqi and Afghan army would drive around in ford Ranger trucks or Toyota hiluxes just regular civilian vehicles. Not all there uniforms were matched. Especially in Afghanistan, a lot of the enemies, a lot of the guys that were actually killing Americans on the bases were actually Afghan soldiers and supposed to be our friend. So on that deployment,really difficult to tell who was supporting you and who was actually against you,sometimes it was the same person. **
 * Kelsie:Did you ever get shot at while flying? **
 * Chris: A lot of times. **
 * Kayla: We know that you fly, but what did the Chinooks do over seas that was exciting to you? **
 * Henson: We got to do a lot of interesting and pretty neat things. We could fly a lot higher and a lot faster aircraft. Sometimes we get called to move the generals in Iraq because we could go a longer distance without having to stop for fuel and could fly faster so we could get around quicker. My favorite is doing air assaults. Where your work with regular conventional ground forces and special operation forces to help them after high value targets and those are always the last exciting and fun flights. **
 * Kelsie: What was something that was different that you do in the United States if you were flying? **
 * Henson: My favorite was when one night we were flying to an outpost in the Pesh valley in Afghanistan, used to be caught Blessing and called Nogalo base. Now once they handed it over to the Aghanies. But one night we got to fly a big cargo net bag of ice cream to the soldiers so that was kinda cool. **
 * Kayla: What makes the Chinooks different from all the other helicopters? **
 * Henson: One is our performance capability. Our maximum aircraft load, the amount of extra cargo and equipment we can carry is dramatically larger than any other aircraft. Our maximum load is usually about 18,519 pounds up to a fifty thousand pound grass weight. So we can move artillery pieces, large equipment, vehicles, stuff that no other helicopter in the army's inventory can do usually. Especially at high altitudes like Afghanistan. **
 * Kelsie: What was the communication with your family at the base you were stationed at? **
 * Henson: I was pretty lucky in my later deployments. We had internet and so I would usually have internet in my own room. The first couple deployments we would, in Iraq, we would buy our own satellite system a bunch of soldiers would go together and buy one and contract the air time so that we could have internet in our rooms. So pretty much almost any day I could call home or webchat with family and then my deployment to Iraq, or uh Afghanistan they actually had a company that came in and had the internet running so we would just contract it. **
 * Kayla: Did you ever make friends while you were with your unit in a deployment? **
 * Henson: Yeah, you always become pretty close with a lot of people and I have friends from all my deployments that I pretty much still talk to for the most part. **
 * Kelsie: What was your assignment or what were you commanded to do overseas? **
 * Henson: Really the big thing was just support, the overall objectives of trying to bring the peace and stability and support combat operations. So we would move men and equipments, supplies sometimes it was a humanitarian relief. Sometimes we would move soldiers for the Iraqi army or the Afghan army or National Police because their country couldn’t move them themselves. We would bring food and supplies to soldiers and pretty much that we were asked to move and do we would do. One funny story when we were in Iraq, the Iraqis won the World Cup for soccer I think it was, it was, I think it was soccer, maybe it was criquet but I think it was soccer. Anyway the Iraqi army decided to celebrate because it was a big deal so they shot all their ammunition off, if not all of it, most of it. So they called us that night and they were like hey the Iraqi army has no ammo at their bases pretty much, they shot it all off. So for like two or three days that’s what we did, we just flew ammo to all the Iraqi bases because they didn’t have any more ammo to protect themselves or conduct missions. **
 * Kayla: Were there any casualties at your stationed area, if so, how did you deal with that? **
 * Henson: There’s always casualties, especially on the bigger bases. I was pretty lucky in that on all of my deployments we were very safe, like my actual individual company unit at the company level we never had anybody get seriously wounded or injured or shot. To the larger extent on one of my deployments to Iraq we actually had a soldier in our brigade that was actually killed by a mortar attack and that was actually kind of hard. A little difficult because I was tasked with another officer to go and collect all of his personal belongings and pack them up and inventory and account for it to be sent home to his wife and kids. And that was kind of hard because he had a little boy by the same name as my son Nathan, or your little brother, so that was a little difficult. **
 * Kelsie: Some soldiers come back and have post-traumatic stress disorder, what did you do to keep yourself from not having that, and dealing with the things that you saw when overseas? **
 * Henson: I was pretty lucky as a pilot, I you know, we got shot at a bunch but I didn’t really see anything overly traumatic for the most part, most of the time. I think a big part of it is just staying busy and kind of focusing on the mission that we had to accomplish all the time. We were very high demand asset there were not a lot of rotary wings especially chinook assets, so we were always flying. Our typical work day would be anywhere from about sixteen to eighteen hours a day so we would fly pretty extensively. So there wasn’t a lot of time to rest so when I did have time to rest, we would play xbox, talk to family, or work out, which kind of helped I think. **
 * Kayla: Did you get any R&R, if so, how many times during each deployment? **
 * Henson: One deployment, one R&R per deployment. Typically it was about a two week period where I get to fly home and see family. That was always a really good time, well needed. **
 * Kelsie: Do you have a favorite experience? **
 * Henson: Yes, one time in Afghanistan we were flying past an observation post by the Pakistan border and we would always talk to them on the radios and one time they had a big fire going and wanted to burn all of their garbage. So I asked them jokingly if they were roasting marshmallows and they said no but that would be awesome. So I told them that I would see what I could do and I called home to my wife, Vanessa, and my wife and family got together a package and so they had graham crackers, marshmallows and Hershey's chocolate bars. So one night when we were flying up there by them again we told them to get ready we had a package for them, so we dropped off everything for them to have smores and by the time I had dropped off people at another base and flew back by, they had a huge bonfire going and they were out there roasting marshmallows. So that was kind of cool. **
 * Kayla: Do you have an eye opening experience? **
 * Henson: There are a lot of eye opening experiences. Sadly a lot of them had to do with choices that the leadership made which is one reason I wanted to leave the active Army and come back to the National Guard. But I think the biggest eyeopening experience is just what we take for granted what we have here in America and how safe and really secure we are. Especially in Afghanistan when people would get married and get their own land, the first they would do is they would put their tent out and when they would get a tent the first thing they would do is get a wall around their property to protect it and then they would build a house and there house is where they'd put all their livestock which is how they fed and took care of there family, especially people who lived in the rural areas. And the. They would hold a house for themselves. And so I think that we forget how lucky we are and that was pretty he opening for me. **
 * Kelsie: Was the adjustment harder going to or coming back from overseas? **
 * Henson: I think it's harder coming home because when you deploy usually it's a bunch of guys so you do normal guy stuff which is the stuff you normally wouldn't do to be polite in public. You're pretty free to do. But coming back home and also sometimes just relaxing like you're used to going pretty hard and being pretty intense and not having deal and be patient other people because the military is very, you tell someone to do something and they do it and you're expected to do it. Sometimes when you come home, especially to a family and kids, sometimes it's hard to they out of that mentality of people are just supposed to do what they are supposed to do like grown up people because kids aren't grown up people. **
 * Kayla: What did you do for your job when you came home? **
 * Henson: I did a lot of what I did before,especially in Afghanistan as an instructor pilot. The big difference now that I'm with the National Guard in Pennsylvania in the Eastern Army National Guard Aviation Training site is we are a schoolhouse. So just like Fort Rucker, we teach people aircraft qualifications and courses, we teach people how to be instructor pilots. There's just a lot more emphasize on the academics and teaching for a platform like regular academic instructors. So it's a little bit different but still along the line of what I did before. **
 * Kelsie: Did you have any time off right after you got home? **
 * Henson: Typically yes you would have an opportunity for block leave and they'd say," hey this is the time pretty much anybody that wants to go on vacation can." So usually we always took an opportunity to take anywhere from two weeks to a month/month and a half off depending on how much vacation time you had saved up. **
 * Kayla: Did you stay at any other countries on your way home from overseas? **
 * Henson:Normally we wouldn't stay. It just stop in different places, the aircraft would get gas or whatever. One exception was when I came back from Pakistan and came home, we had had a soldier get wounded. He was in a coma and so they medivacced him back to the United States and so I escorted him back home to his family. I spent about a week and a couple days in Germany and was at the medical center there. But that's about the only time I've typically taken my time working back through. Usually it's just a straight flight home. **
 * Kelsie: How long was the separation between deployments? **
 * Henson: When I was on active duty, Iraq and Afghanistan, usually the break would be anywhere from about 14 to 16 or 18 months. **
 * Kayla: Do you have any regrets from your service? **
 * Henson: No regrets **
 * Kelsie: If you had the chance to go back, knowing what you know now, would you choose to join the army and be a pilot again? **
 * Henson: Yes, definitely. **
 * Kayla: Please tell me about your uniform and medals. **
 * Henson: This is the uniform I wear everyday, it's a flight uniform. The A2CU, Army Aircrew Combat uniform, it's made out of nomex fire resistant. I can get my other one if you want. **
 * Kayla: Please tell us about your uniform. **
 * Henson: So this is what I wear everyday, my Army Aircrew Combat Uniform which is a flight uniform. For dress occasions, this is the Army service uniform or the ASU. More formal instances like promotions or balls or other situations like that. The shoulder boards have my rank and also has a blue background for my branch which is indicated by the branch insignia on it, aviation branch. Also I have my unit crest for Eastern Army National Guard Aviation Training site. I have an Army Commendation Medal with oak leaf clusters for various deployments, it's a unit level award. Then I have the 82nd badge there, showing that I served in combat with the 82nd Airborne Division. On this side, my awards. My combat action badge, I earned that in Iraq being shot at by RPG's. I have my senior aviators badge and then and four air medals, four army commendation medals, three army achievement medals, national defense service ribbon, the Kosovo campaign medal with one star, Afghanistan campaign medal, Iraq campaign medal with two stars, global war on terrorism expeditionary medal, overseas service ribbon, reserved components achievement medal with M for mobilization, army service ribbon, humanitarian service medal and then the Nadal medal that I earned in Afghanistan. On the side I have service stripes for overseas deployments, one for each six months I've spent overseas in combat. **
 * Kelsie: How do you advance in ranking? **
 * Henson: For the army as officers, it’s a little bit different than enlisting, as enlisted is based on your time and service. Then you would typically go to a board which is like an interview process and then based on your rankings your PT tests and other things theres a scoring system and based on those points you come out kind of on an order of merit list with a cut off. Then you’ll be promoted depending on your standing. For officers you go to a selective competitive board, a paper profile of you with all of your service records, your officer evaluations, and performance reports go to a centralized board where other warrant officers and commissioned officers sit on a board and they evaluate and rank you and then based on the needs of the army, if the army says I need x number of CW3’s this year they will draw that line and anybody above that line based on their ranking is promoted. **
 * Kayla: What courses did you have to take to get to the ranking you are at now? **
 * Henson: All the courses I talked about previously, the warrant officer candidate school, and then I needed the warrant officer basic course and advanced course are the professional development courses for the rank of CW3 and then I took the warrant officer staff course which actually just changed to warrant officer intermediate level education course and that will qualify me for my next promotion to Chief Warrant Officer 4. **
 * Kelsie: Where have you flown to in the U.S.? **
 * Henson: I’ve flown all over the U.S. I flew, when I was in Texas, all over Texas, down into Mexico, doing disaster relief on the Rio Grande. I’ve flown to California, Arizona, New Mexico. I’m trying to think where else… Colorado. I flew multiple times to Louisiana from Fort Bag, North Carolina. Multiple times I fly out to Colorado so we’ve covered pretty much every state in between. Connecticut, New York, I just got to fly threw Washington D.C. down the Potomac which was really cool, right past the Jefferson Monument. So a lot of really kinda neat places that you don’t always get to see, and go to. **
 * Kayla: Thank you for letting us interview you. **

** __Christopher Henson__ **
 * Kayla Henson **
 * Kelsie Salem **


 * Christopher Henson was born on July 7,1980 and served in the US Army to try and stop global terrorism. His highest rank achieved is the Chief Warrant Officer 3. He was born in Provo, Utah. His family moved from Florida, New York and then to Michigan because of his parents' jobs. Mr. Henson's dad was a science teacher and then went into the medical field. His parents now run a consulting business in Michigan. Mr. Henson is the oldest with three other siblings, two brothers and one sister. **
 * Mr. Henson joined the National Guard when he was 17 and still in high school. Mr Henson says “I always wanted to be in the military. I always wanted to be a pilot.” He went to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri for basic training where he learned medical, weapons training but it was also a lot of physical endurance. His drill sergeant wasn't anything that was not normal, but years down the road on his first deployment, he ran into his drill sergeant. Mr. Henson actually wanted to fly airplanes but didn't have the requirement of having perfect vision. He says: “No, I've always wanted to be a pilot. My grandfather was a pilot when I was a kid, I just had an uncle who went to the Air Force Academy as well. It was just something I have always wanted to do.I always wanted to fly airplanes, but I didn’t have perfect vision.” So, still trying to pursue his goal of flying, he decided to fly Chinooks. He got to fly on a Huey with some old pilots and thought that it was very cool and persuaded his decision to flying helicopters. **
 * Mr. Henson had to go to a lot of different schools to become a pilot. But also he needed training to be a Warrant Officer and advance in those rankings. After going to basic training and the Warrant Candidate school, Mr. Henson went to flight school in Fort Rucker, Alabama for a year and a half. But in between warrant officer candidate school and flight school, he was married and moved his two daughters to Alabama with him. **
 * In the beginning of flight school, the students learned about basic helicopter techniques and flying. Usually half the day was spent in a classroom and the rest flying. Then he progressed to learning instruments, like learning how to fly in the clouds with only the instruments. He then had graduated from that course and went on to basic combat skills. **
 * In Basic combat skills or BCS, they learned how to fly tactically, do mission plans and night vision flying. He then had to go to an Officer Ship Course for a few weeks. After that, he was granted his designation as an aviator and earned his pilot's wings. But his training wasn't done there. He went to his advanced airframe to learn how to specifically fly the CH-47. **
 * The Chinook has many instruments used in combat. Most people would think that the Chinook is slower because of the size but actually in the US Army, it is the fastest helicopter. One of the Mr. Henson actually did while in Iraq was fly those Chinooks and put up supplies and help wounded soldiers. The Chinooks can high at flyer altitudes than the other helicopters can. So the Chinooks are able to get to destinations faster by flying higher and in the clouds. **
 * After flight school, and after his second trip to Iraq, they got a new version of the Chinook. “It’s called the Fox model or Ch-47F, which a glass cockpit with a flight instructor, a lot of advancements to make it safer and give us some more capability.” Mr. Henson took a course called the Warrant Officer Advanced Course, which is another officer ship development course. Throughout that course, he went from the CH-47 instructor pilot course to an F model pilot course. After he completed this course, he went to Fort Bragg, North Carolina to take the high altitude power management course and the high altitude mountain training course to learn how to fly in high mountains and altitudes. **
 * Once back from North Carolina, Henson then transitioned to the National Guard. He had to take the instructor basic course. “I went to the instructor basic course, the army basic instructor course to teach me to be a better instructor.” After this course, he went to the warrant officer staff course, “which is a course with grave level and officer development for warrant officers” **
 * After he took some of these courses, Henson had his first deployment. Mr. Henson was first deployed to Kosovo during Operation Joint Guardian. Mr. Henson’s unit was the second rotation of troops sent there. Most of the time he was in Kosovo, Henson was a Chaplain’s Assistant. During the interview he said, “....every time I’d drive out I was a Chaplain’s Assistant, it was my first job so I was kind of like a bodyguard for the Chaplains.” He also stated that Kosovo was a very undeveloped country. Mr. Henson went to Pakistan for his second deployment. He didn’t get to interact with the local people as much, but he saw more of the country because he flew in this deployment. Typically in his deployments they would get up later in the afternoon and fly, since it was safer to fly at night. Once they got back, they would check the helicopter to see if anything broke or if they needed to repair anything. Then they would go back to bed and continue the same procedure the next day. He has gone on several other deployments and most the same as the second. **
 * Mr. Henson has had many experiences during his deployments. One interesting story that Mr. Henson told was about an experience he had while flying in Afghanistan really stood out to us. **
 * “Yes, one time in Afghanistan we were flying past an observation post by the Pakistan border and we would always talk to them on the radios and one time they had a big fire going and wanted to burn all of their garbage. So I asked them jokingly if they were roasting marshmallows and they said no but that would be awesome. So I told them that I would see what I could do and I called home to my wife, Vanessa, and my wife and family got together a package and so they had graham crackers, marshmallows and Hershey's chocolate bars. So one night when we were flying up there by them again we told them to get ready we had a package for them, so we dropped off everything for them to have smores and by the time I had dropped off people at another base and flew back by, they had a huge bonfire going and they were out there roasting marshmallows.” **
 * Now, he teaches other pilots like him to fly the CH47F chinook. Pilots come from all over the United States to be taught on the newest version. Mr. Henson takes the students on check rides and night vision just like he did when he was in Flight school. Mr. Henson and the other teachers at his work switch off teaching courses and flying for checkrides. Mr. Henson has fulfilled his goal of becoming a pilot and serviceman in the Army. This is his life story. **