58th instructor pilot trained pilots for Afghan Air Force

  • Published
  • By Jim Fisher
  • 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  Students trained by the 58th Special Operations Wing are turned into combat-ready special operations and rescue crewmembers that can make an impact in operations around the world. This holds true for one of the wing's helicopter pilots.

Maj. Mary Clark, a UH-1N Huey instructor pilot and the 58th Operations Support Squadron's assistant director of operations, recently made an impact by training pilots, male and female, for the Afghan Air Force at Shindand Air Base, Afghanistan.

The 20 student pilots Clark trained included three female members of the AAF. Clark was training male rotary-wing pilots to fly the Russian-made Mi-17, but she also took part in non-flying aspects of all pilot training and had an opportunity to set an example for the Afghan women. The three female student pilots were training to fly fixed-wing aircraft.

Clark said she hopes the impact made by the mission -- which she took part in for a year, ending November 2013 -- went beyond producing capable pilots for the AAF.

"We exposed one culture to another and did our best to create an avenue for advancement in their society," she said.

Due to cultural restrictions on interaction between men and women outside the family environment, it helped the Afghan women to have a female instructor, Clark said. The women were not invited to evening study sessions that male students would hold, and were somewhat on their own when coalition instructors were not holding a formal class. Clark was able to provide an avenue for them to get questions answered and facilitate their self-study.

"If they had a question they would come to me," she said. "They felt more comfortable having a woman present during training."

In addition to helping the women to adapt to the training environment, Clark acted as a role model.

"The women were all very motivated and competent. Despite facing significant threats to their safety, they did well in their training," she said. "These women were very brave to choose this career path. I was happy to be able to be an example of professionalism for them. I think it was important for them to see that a woman could become a pilot."

In addition to adjusting to the culture, Clark had to adjust to a different aircraft.

To prepare for the mission, she had to learn how to fly the Mi-17, which is very different from the UH-1N. Because the Mi-17 rotor spins in the opposite direction, it has a different flight control arrangement, and it is much larger than the Huey.

"I got 35 hours in the Mi-17 before I deployed," Clark said. "And the transition was smooth. It was fun."

Once Clark had established herself as a well-trained and skilled pilot, she gained credibility with all students, male and female.

The major also had to deal with not only the dangers inherent to the deployed environment, but the heightened alert following a spate of inside attacks from Taliban members.

"It's terrorists targeting their own people," she said. "You had to be on guard, but you can't be paranoid. A year is just too long to be paranoid."

More traditional combat-related threats called Clark into action. She took part in a rescue mission after a helicopter was struck from an improvised explosive device during a training mission, and she had several Afghan comrades killed in the line of duty. This included a safety officer she had advised throughout her year there who was killed in a grenade attack a week before she left the country.

The female Afghan pilots she worked with also had to deal with constant dangers.

While on base, the women were protected, but it they could not wear their uniforms in public without making themselves a target of the Taliban, Clark said.

A competent air force to defend gains Afghanistan has made toward a free society will also translate into a more enlightened society in the long term, she said.

"You have to change an entire generation," Clark said. "Our presence as advisers, Airmen, and, in my case, as a woman, served to enlighten the younger generation of Afghan soldiers that we interacted with. This willingness to embrace a global perspective, coupled with the establishment of national pride, is essential for the country to defeat terrorist threats to their government and way of life.

"I encountered many intelligent and motivated Afghans. With coalition support we saw many successes, such as Afghan officers becoming instructor pilots and leading real-world missions as well as taking command and leading their own people. As NATO troops withdraw over the next year it will be incumbent on these leaders to continue these practices as they assume primary responsibility for defending their country and their freedom."