Black hawk pilot on rescue mission while family's status unknown
Below are taken from a rescue pilot's diary. Let's all pray for our brave rescuers.
"My hometown is Union Village, Longxi Township of Wenchuan County, the epicenter of the 5/12 Earthquake. Till today, the fate of both of my parents, one brother and four sisters is still not known. It is not just me. A lot of servicemen in our regiment are from Wenchuan, Mao and Li Counties. Some of them have not been able to contact their families. Somebody's family had suffered huge. Tibetan Pilot Duome Xiu's niece is stilled trapped in Mao County, her whereabouts unknown. Another Tibetan Pilot Yuankang Chen's brother and sister-in-law have been trapped in Li County and she lost contact with them again since the aftershock on the 16th." Regiment commander Zhirong Yu home is in Wenchuan. So far he has not been able to contact his family. Yet he has continued to fly his Black hawk in the rescue missions."
"All these soldiers have been terrific. No one ever asked to leave. All have been working overtime. Our surveillance helicopters went out for rescue at 4 PM on May 12th, 1.5 hours after the earthquake. It was turbulent weather, but they managed to fly over the disaster area and took many valuable pictures and videos."
"We normally fly less than 6 hours everyday to comply regulatory, but many of us are flying 8-12 hours now. Our eyes are beginning to turn red from tiredness. We can withstand that. What makes us feel sorry is when the weather is not good and we have to turn back."
"Five or six times I flew over my home. The view was shocking and miserable. From what I saw, almost all the houses were down. I wish I knew what had happened to my family! Six days passed and not a trickle of information about them. To tell you the truth, each time I was up there, I wished I could go down to find out if they are all safe and sound. Everybody has his own family but a soldier has obligations. My job now is to help my country now, which I hope will help find my family."