Apache at War

Apache at War is a memoir of the author's service flying close-support helicopters with the AAC, from patrolling 'Bandit Country' in Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland, in the late 1990s, to taking out Taliban fighters in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in the mid to late 2000s, with active service in the Balkans and Iraq along the way; he was decorated for rescuing other soldiers from a helicopter that had crashed and caught fire. IT is also a tribute to the relationship between the author and one of the most extraordinary combat aircraft ever to enter service, the AH-64 Apache, often referred to by its military callsign 'Ugly'. For hard-pressed infantry on the ground in Afghanistan, 'getting Ugly' was often the difference between triumph and disaster. The author, Steve Jones, was a WO1; that is, a warrant officer class 1, the highest rank of non-commissioned officer in the British Army, equivalent to a senior sergeant-major. He was also a qualified instructor on the Apache, and as such helped to teach Prince Harry - the then Lieutenant H. Wales - to fly and fight the aircraft. (Spoiler alert: 'A good soldier and a good man.')