| Phil Reeves, a 1976 Wilton High School graduate, will be the grand marshal for the Memorial Day parade and ceremonies starting at 10 a.m. in Wilton Center on Monday, May 28. Following graduation, Mr. Reeves joined the Westport Fire Department fulfilling a life-long dream to be a firefighter. Mr. Reeves also wanted to fly, leading him to enlist in the Army in 1987. After attending basic training for helicopters at Fort Bucker, Ala., he became qualified as a pilot of attack AH1 Cobra helicopters. This led to active duty in Korea from 1989 to 1990, followed by two years at Fort Drum in upstate New York.
After leaving active duty in 1992, Mr. Reeves resumed his career as a firefighter in Bridgeport. To continue to pursue his love of flying, he joined the National Guard MedEvac unit, C Company, Third Battalion, 126th Aviation based in Westford, Mass.
His unit was activated and deployed to Iraq in December 2005 as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. As pilot of a UH60 Blackhawk Medical Evacuation Helicopter unit, Mr. Reeves commanded a crew of five consisting of a co-pilot, two crew chiefs, and a flight medic. Based southeast of Baghdad, their mission was to pick up and transport injured individuals to a combat support hospital. Patients included military personnel, coalition forces, enemy forces, and Iraqi citizens.
“Most of the civilians we transported were injured due to non-combat accidents,” said Mr. Reeves in a recent interview. His unit was available to help all people in need of medical attention, he said.
A typical duty day began at 5:30 a.m. with a briefing, weather checks, gathering of intelligence information, and pre-flighting the aircraft.
“We would like to complete this preparation before 09:00, before the heat of the day. It got so hot that just touching bare metal without gloves would raise blisters,” said Mr. Reeves. “Flying a Blackhawk MedEvac Helicopter over hostile terrain in Iraq is reactive; we must be airborne within 15 minutes of being called out, so we must ensure we have all the best information, and that our equipment is ready.”
In October 2006, nearly a year after deployment, his wife Robyn, and children Rebecca, 10, and Isaac, 8, welcomed him back to their home on Chicken Street. Today, Mr. Reeves balances time with his family along with the time away from home as a professional firefighter along with training in his National Guard Unit.
On the day of his interview, Mr. Reeves was studying maps of the local area, as the next day, he was scheduled to fly a training mission from his base in Massachusetts to West Point, and the weather was predicted to be cloudy and windy, which necessitated careful planning.
© Copyright 2007 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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