30/01/2025
20 years to the day will never forget that day when the news came in, this evening I raise a glass 🍺🥃 blue skies lads!
In Memory of the Heroes of Hercules C130K - Hilton 22 - (XV179)
On the 30th January 2005 at 13:30 Zulu the crew and passengers of the Hercules C130K, call sign Hilton 22 (XV179) were flying north-west from Baghdad International Airport. They were en route to Balad when the aircraft received sustained gunfire from an insurgent team.
The aircraft suffered a catastrophic failure following this assault when an ullage explosion caused twenty-three feet of the starboard wing to detach, the outboard of the number 4 engine.
The aircraft crashed killing all ten men on board.
We will never forget this date as a reminder of our friends’ courage and dedicated service to the military cause in Iraq. Their names appear on the Roll of Honour at the Armed Forces Memorial in the National Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire.
Lest we forget…
Sqn Ldr Pat “Paddy” Marshall (passenger).
Flt Lt David “Steady” Stead (pilot).
Flt Lt Andy “Smudge” Smith (pilot).
Flt Lt Paul “Pards” Pardoel (navigator).
MEng Gary “Gary Nic” Nicholson (flight engineer).
Flt Sgt Mark “Gibbo” Gibson (air loadmaster).
Chf Tech Richie Brown (ground engineer).
Sgt Bob O’Connor (ground engineer).
Cpl David Williams (safety equipment).
L/Cpl “Jonah” Jones (SFC).
Freedom is not free…R.I.P.
