Title: ‘Danger Close’ Focuses On The Kiowa's Crucial Role In Iraq And Afghanistan - Task & Purpose
Headings: ‘Danger Close’ Focuses On The Kiowa’s Crucial Role In Iraq And Afghanistan
‘Danger Close’ Focuses On The Kiowa’s Crucial Role In Iraq And Afghanistan
What do you think the Kiowa brings to the battlefield that other helicopters do not?
What is it like to get shot at when you’re in a Kiowa? Do you hear the rounds?
What was it like flying in Iraq versus flying in Afghanistan? Did it require some adjustment?
When you joined the military as a Kiowa pilot, did you do so hoping to see combat?
What would you say to an 18-year-old woman who is thinking about joining the Army as a Kiowa pilot?
Why the title “Danger Close”?
What do you hope civilian readers take away from this book?
Do you hope it will influence the conversation around women in combat in any way?

Content: Smith, whose parents and two sisters were also pilots, didn’t join the Army to make a statement or blaze trails. She joined to fly helicopters. Related: An Army Pilot’s Tribute To the OH-58 Kiowa Warrior »
“I grew up in a very patriotic family and I always had this love and respect for the military,” Smith told Task & Purpose. “ And then I also had this love for aviation, so it was the perfect fit for me.” What really makes “Danger Close” remarkable has less to do with the fact that it was written by a woman, and more to do with the fact that it’s the first major post-9/11 war memoir written by a Kiowa pilot. Smith flew hundreds of combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, but she’s not unique in that regard: Between 2001 and 2010, the Kiowa was the most-used aircraft in the Global War on Terror. Dozens of Kiowa pilots never made it back home alive. Their story is an indispensable thread in the narrative of those conflicts.