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

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Originally from a small town in Co. Down, Northern Ireland, she attended RAF Cranwell on her 19th birthday to begin her exciting career. At the age of 21 Liz became the youngest aircrew to deploy to Iraq. She was also the only female member of the crew on the iconic Chinook helicopter team for four years. On her final MERT operation, a US medic handed McConaghy a clear plastic bag with the severed foot of an American serviceman killed in action. It tells me a lot about how my own mental state was by this time of the campaign as even this didn’t make me bat an eyelid or flinch,” she recalls. When I was reading about the simulated torture scenarios she had to get through, I was absolutely shivering inside. How anyone can get through that kind of thing for real, I just don't know. Man's inhumanity to man clearly knows no bounds.

Does McConaghy have any words of wisdom for people thinking of following the same kind of career path?The good thing about the Chinook”Liz explained , “compared to something like the Puma and even the Merlin is that it’s got a lot of redundant space. So you can take a lot around you, a lot of battle damage and as long as the engines are still running and you are still going, then you’re okay. It was almost like I had 10 years' worth of tears that just had to come out. It was only then that I was able to come to terms with the fact that, I’m a veteran and I’m a PTSD survivor.

The bad stuff is the same stuff that everyone else goes through, not so much the PTSD and mental health.” Liz’s journey resonated deeply with us at Defence Discount Service. Her courage in the face of PTSD and mental health challenges serves as a powerful testament that others facing similar struggles do not define us, but rather constitute a part of our life from which invaluable lessons can be learned. WE NEED YOUR HELP, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google or your podcast playing app.

By way of a parting message for readers, McConaghy appeals to anyone going through similar issues she has experienced to seek help. Liz turned to writing both poetry and her autobiography following a tough battle with PTSD years after leaving the service, in the hope it may help others with their mental health. 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. 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. It's a powerful story, with a mix of Irish humour, strong news on the then RAF approach to personal issues raised by those in combat and a brutally honest finale. Go buy a copy today." Helicopter International - January-February 2023