Apache at War

Apache at War is a memoir of the author's service flying close-support helicopters with the AAC, from patrolling 'Bandit Country' in Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland, in the late 1990s, to taking out Taliban fighters in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in the mid to late 2000s, with active service in the Balkans and Iraq along the way; he was decorated for rescuing other soldiers from a helicopter that had crashed and caught fire.IT is also a tribute to the relationship between the author and one of the most extraordinary combat aircraft ever to enter service, the AH-64 Apache, often referred to by its military callsign 'Ugly'. For hard-pressed infantry on the ground in Afghanistan, 'getting Ugly' was often the difference between triumph and disaster.The author, Steve Jones, was a WO1; that is, a warrant officer class 1, the highest rank of non-commissioned officer in the British Army, equivalent to a senior sergeant-major. He was also a qualified instructor on the Apache, and as such helped to teach Prince Harry - the then Lieutenant H. Wales - to fly and fight the aircraft. (Spoiler alert: 'A good soldier and a good man.')

Steve Jones spent twenty-seven years in the military, earned his stripes as a ferocious war pilot, and has been decorated eight times. He fired the UK's first controversial thermobaric missile; helped track and kill Most Wanted Taliban commanders; and taught Prince Harry to wage war from an attack helicopter. Jones had been the UK's youngest trainee military pilot when he signed up. He went on to serve with the Army Air Corps in the Balkans, in the Gulf War, twice in Northern Ireland, and three times in Afghanistan. Along the way he secured the Queen's Commendation for Bravery after pulling comrades from the burning wreckage of a crashed helicopter. As an instructor, he helped teach Lieutenant Harry Wales to fly and fight the hunter-killer Apache. He tells of mentoring the hard-living prince, of equipping him with skills that would later bring out the best in him in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.