Chinook Crew 'Chick': Highs and Lows of Forces Life from the Longest Serving Female RAF Chinook Force Crewmember

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Yes, I have,” she said. “Having had the book come out [all her mental health challenges are] now completely out in the world. And the more I’m talking about it, the more it is genuinely OK now. From dodging bullets to saving soldiers and witnessing the brutality and loss of war, Liz discusses how she found herself bringing the battlefield home, despite her fighting days being over. We’re all really bad at saying: ‘I’m living the dream, things are great’. And, whenever you do get asked that question, give your mental health a number. Are you a six, a five or maybe a seven today? There are two reasons for that. Firstly, it helps you gauge where you are, so you’ll notice changes or not. If you’ve been at number three for a few weeks that’s not good. But if you can get everyone to use that system, it’s also a good measure for other people and help them notice how you’re doing.” Just seconds from smashing into the ground, the co-pilot managed to regain control and the Chinook soared into the sky. They had escaped death by a hair’s breadth. Only the highest of praise goes out to the author and publishers for bringing us this wonderful story that im positive you will find very interesting. I really hope the author writes more books as I would really love to read more. I also want to thank her for her service to our country. NetGalley, Claire Lavin

If you are quite open and authentic about that then it gives other people a bit of an idea. If you’re struggling and for you, if you’re always saying the number 3 for a few days in a row, [and] you’re like ‘this isn’t good’, maybe speak to someone. When people ask twice, then sometimes that’s just enough to open the tiny tears tap.” You do a six-month school called the UCF, which is where you work up to learn how to operate and then you get sent to your first squad, which for me was 27 and then you have to do what’s called a combat ready work up. So that is essentially learning how to operate the Chinook when you’re getting combat ready. You learn what rules you can bend when you’re at war; if you’re getting shot at, what you can and can’t get away with.Originally from a small town in Co. Down, Northern Ireland, she attended RAF Cranwell on her 19th birthday to begin her exciting career.

People were reading it and resonating with my experiences. Suddenly people were getting in touch to ask for support, and I was doing what I have always wanted to do – helping people. The book has given me a new purpose - positivity has come out of a dark time.” At 19, Liz, now 40, left her home in Northern Ireland to join the RAF and three years later, aged just 21, she was named the youngest aircrew member to be deployed to Iraq. She was also the only female ‘crewman’ on the Chinook wing for four years and the longest serving as well. From 2007 McConaghy crewed the Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT), a high-octane M.A.S.H-style air ambulance service in which a Chinook was on constant readiness at Bastion to fly to the middle of the battlefield and rescue seriously wounded soldiers. On her busiest day of operations in 2008, she and her crew flew 14 separate sorties – including one where five British soldiers had been killed at a forward operating base.WE NEED YOUR HELP, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google or your podcast playing app. The book touches on, but is not dominated by, the theme of women in the armed forces. This is a topic that has been constantly in the UK news following a series of sex-related scandals. But McConaghy is pragmatic, explaining that in her experience, the men have never treated her or the only other female on her squadron any differently. The book is an honest and humorous account of Liz’s ‘ best of times and worst of times’ and how her experiences flying on the Chinook have changed and moulded her into the woman she has become. Xtended can also be found on Apple Podcasts, the Google Podcast app, Spotify and wherever else you normally listen to podcasts. I think if you want that extra ‘ohh, isn’t she amazing? Look, she’s the girl doing this job,’ you’re almost saying that they’re not capable of it in the first place.’

When I went to Iraq, I was the youngest aircrew member. Not only that, but I was limited combat ready. You learn to fly on a little helicopter, which is the Griffon (training helicopter) and then you get posted to whichever helicopter type you want to go on, and for me, that was always the Chinook.” She is now living in Basingstoke near the airbase she worked at, RAF Odiham — where the Chinooks are based — after spending a total of 17-and-a-half years flying with the RAF’s Chinook fleet. We are joined by Liz McConaghy . Liz is from a small town in County Down and spent a total of seventeen years flying with the RAF’s Chinook Force. And I never not wanted to go and if I hadn’t gone, it meant somebody else had to go in my place. Somebody else [who] had to do an extra one or one of the new guys who wasn’t combat ready had to go instead when he wasn’t quite ready to go. I was always really worried that someone would have to take my bullet, you feel like if you don’t go, what if something happens and I’m meant to be there and I’m not? That kind of kept me in the job, certainly for those ten years. “Liz talks to us about her flying career, the mighty Chinook and the after-effects of war, stress and the impact on her mental health. Aerospace book choices for Christmas, the best of 2022's aviation books. Royal Aeronautical Society