Chinook Crew ‘Chick’

By Liz McConagh

Chinook Crew ‘Chick’ is Liz McConaghy’s first foray in to authorship and she pilots her story with great honesty and with heart. Her twenty-one year career in the Royal Air Force is nothing short of impressive and the book is so much more than a recollection of her deployments to some of the most dangerous and demanding conflicts of our time. Liz begins her reflections by sharing her journey to becoming the first female within the Chinook fleet, an achievement that saw her grow and adapt to be part of a very tight team, to seize opportunities as they presented to do and be something more, and along the way to find the humility to question whether she had what it would take and to dig deep when things didn’t always go her way. She recalls some of the challenges of being a woman in a broadly male organisation and any serving female would recognise her reflections – the adaptions, the self-belief, the compromises, asking for help, well-earned respect – and at the heart of those challenges was a need and a faith that doing your job well would bring belonging and success.

Her narration of her time in Iraq and Afghanistan was at times harrowing to read but mostly moving. The role of the Chinook in recovering casualties from the front line and protecting both those extracting from firefights and roadside bombs was critical and she shares how focused and intense a time that was for all concerned. I particularly liked the fondness and affection she had for her aircraft, Gloria, and it reminded me of my first troop and how they would talk of the 432’s – each had its own personality and nuances – and you could pretty much predict which one was about to break down!

The most moving part of this book is her journey to rock bottom and it really starts with her reflections of becoming injured and realising that she would not be able to continue to be part of the Chinook Force. I think this is one of the most challenging parts of military life and she identifies how hard this is for so many in the military when their part in a team they have been with for a very long time comes to an abrupt end and there is little by way of control. I sense in many ways it was the catalyst to her mental health deterioration and she describes with great honesty the demise of her marriage and her subsequent suicide attempt. This is a difficult, compelling read and brings out the importance of reaching out for support, early intervention to avoid crisis and brings out the damage that can done, far wider than the individual, to relationships and friendships during periods of very difficult mental health. Liz’s recovery from this time, and her ability to find positive ways of moving forward also make for impressive reading. This is a woman who fights, and has always done and I hope she continues to draw strength from the words of others who have read her book.

Overall, a captivating read from a honest and impressively strong ‘chick’.

Brigadier Caroline Woodbridge-Lewin MBE

Published by Air World. ISBN 978-1399072922, 224 pages.