Chinook Crew 'Chick': Highs and Lows of Forces Life from the Longest Serving Female RAF Chinook Force Crewmember

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The good thing about the Chinook”Liz explained , “compared to something like the Puma and even the Merlin is that it’s got a lot of redundant space. So you can take a lot around you, a lot of battle damage and as long as the engines are still running and you are still going, then you’re okay. It tells me a lot about how my own mental state was by this time of the campaign as even this didn’t make me bat an eyelid or flinch,” she recalls. All you could hear above the deafening roar of the rotors was the 'ting ting ting' of bullets hitting the Chinook' International Express

I requested this book because of my love of aircraft and in particular Chinooks. This was a great insight and a really interesting read. NetGalley, Karena Freeman Liz was only 21 when she became the youngest Chinook crewmember to serve in Iraq, and then became the longest serving female member. At the age of 21 Liz became the youngest aircrew to deploy to Iraq. She was also the only female member of the crew on the iconic Chinook helicopter team for four years.The book touches on, but is not dominated by, the theme of women in the armed forces. This is a topic that has been constantly in the UK news following a series of sex-related scandals. But McConaghy is pragmatic, explaining that in her experience, the men have never treated her or the only other female on her squadron any differently. She survived and went into the Veterans Mental Health care system to help her deal with her demons and finally lay the images she had seen on the battlefield to rest.

I knew we were about to crash so I braced myself hard against the door frame and placed my hand on the release straps of my harness,” she said. By way of a parting message for readers, McConaghy appeals to anyone going through similar issues she has experienced to seek help. As a resillience speaker and mental health speaker, Liz’s story offers hope to those who have also found themselves in the darkest places and are looking for the tools within themselves to begin rebuilding a pathway to a new life.The bad stuff is the same stuff that everyone else goes through, not so much the PTSD and mental health.” People were reading it and resonating with my experiences. Suddenly people were getting in touch to ask for support, and I was doing what I have always wanted to do – helping people. The book has given me a new purpose - positivity has come out of a dark time.”

Article: Local woman's book looks at life in a Chinook during wartime: 'Each of the stretchers came over the ramp and each had a flag over the body' County Down Spectator Xtended can also be found on Apple Podcasts, the Google Podcast app, Spotify and wherever else you normally listen to podcasts. Another aspect of the book which touched me deeply was when the author was writing of her own darkest hour. I remember studying suicidal ideation during my psychotherapy training and I have to say that the author has done a fantastic job of describing the dissociative thought process which can lead someone down the dark path to suicide. The logical thought process, cut off from all emotion, is starkly illustrated in the book, as is the example of how easy it is to just fall through the net of those who have a duty of care to protect, such as doctors, pharmacists and counselors. When will those in power learn that under-funding and overstretching these services really does cost lives? No-one should be allowed to fall through the net. No-one who reaches out for help should be sent away with a handful of leaflets and promises of a referral that can take months to action. Aerospace book choices for Christmas, the best of 2022's aviation books. Royal Aeronautical Society

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It was almost like I had 10 years' worth of tears that just had to come out. It was only then that I was able to come to terms with the fact that, I’m a veteran and I’m a PTSD survivor. Liz sounds like an absolute delight, or should I just call her Gloria? That helmet label really made me laugh, lots! On her final MERT operation, a US medic handed McConaghy a clear plastic bag with the severed foot of an American serviceman killed in action. It all became very normal and was just another day at work, so I didn’t realise at the time the effect it was having on my mental health.”

PTSD doesn’t have to stay with you forever. It’s a chapter in my book, it’s not an anchor that I wear around my legs forever or a new label that I have to have forever,” she said. “I’ve met so many people via social media who tag themselves as the broken soldier or the forgotten veteran. But just like anything in your body, the bone you break or whatever, with the right time and methods you can heal, and you can move on and recover. I really want to get the message out – just because I had PTSD does not mean I have to have it forever.” We are joined by Liz McConaghy . Liz is from a small town in County Down and spent a total of seventeen years flying with the RAF’s Chinook Force. You do a six-month school called the UCF, which is where you work up to learn how to operate and then you get sent to your first squad, which for me was 27 and then you have to do what’s called a combat ready work up. So that is essentially learning how to operate the Chinook when you’re getting combat ready. You learn what rules you can bend when you’re at war; if you’re getting shot at, what you can and can’t get away with.The book is an honest and humorous account of Liz’s ‘ best of times and worst of times’ and how her experiences flying on the Chinook have changed and moulded her into the woman she has become.