7
“Ante up,” Henderson called out loud enough for Cal to hear him over the four roaring Pratt & Whitney F117 turbofan engines.
They were on the ground in Hawaii only long enough to fuel up. They were doing the twenty-hour flight straight through, with only two stops en route for fuel and fresh crews.
Once airborne again, they had gathered inside the belly of the roaring C-17 for lunch. The helicopters were crammed in, each twisted slightly so that the tail sections overlapped, strapped down so that they couldn’t shift an inch in flight.
Cal had chatted with the loadmasters. The five helicopters crowded in the bay weighed only about a quarter of what the transport plane could carry. They claimed that a C-17 could easily carry an Abrams main battle tank. He didn’t know what that meant be
