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

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We’re extremely proud to honour Liz as our Inspirational Woman of the Year 2023, and would like to express our deepest gratitude for her altruism and dedication to uplifting the lives of others.” We also deliberately didn’t try to find out whether the casualties had made it or not, it was too difficult to find out because it wasn’t good for our mental health, but when the camp went into a state of ‘minimise’ — which is when the internet and phone lines are turned off — we knew that was when someone had lost their lives. Another aspect of the book which touched me deeply was when the author was writing of her own darkest hour. I remember studying suicidal ideation during my psychotherapy training and I have to say that the author has done a fantastic job of describing the dissociative thought process which can lead someone down the dark path to suicide. The logical thought process, cut off from all emotion, is starkly illustrated in the book, as is the example of how easy it is to just fall through the net of those who have a duty of care to protect, such as doctors, pharmacists and counselors. When will those in power learn that under-funding and overstretching these services really does cost lives? No-one should be allowed to fall through the net. No-one who reaches out for help should be sent away with a handful of leaflets and promises of a referral that can take months to action. Hopefully, Liz McConaghy’s exposure of her own experiences will serve to help others. She tells her story well and it will be an ‘eye opener’ for those who have had little or no exposure to the harsher consequences inherent in service life. RAF Historical Society Journal 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.

Liz was only 21 when she became the youngest Chinook crewmember to serve in Iraq, and then became the longest serving female member. From 2007 McConaghy crewed the Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT), a high-octane M.A.S.H-style air ambulance service in which a Chinook was on constant readiness at Bastion to fly to the middle of the battlefield and rescue seriously wounded soldiers. On her busiest day of operations in 2008, she and her crew flew 14 separate sorties – including one where five British soldiers had been killed at a forward operating base. Find the thing that makes your skin tingle,” she said. “If it’s anything less than something that really lights your fire, you’re never going to get up and give it 100%, commit everything and throw yourself in headfirst. If you’re settling for what you’re doing, it’s not the right thing. Aim high and go for it! You’ll never know if you don’t try so just go for it. 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. Article featured: Liz McConaghy named 2023 Inspirational Women in Defence by the Defence Discount Service. RAF News - July 28, 2023We are joined by Liz McConaghy . Liz is from a small town in County Down and spent a total of seventeen years flying with the RAF’s Chinook Force.

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. Yes, I have,” she said. “Having had the book come out [all her mental health challenges are] now completely out in the world. And the more I’m talking about it, the more it is genuinely OK now. My love of my life was the chinook. It's such a unique aircraft; the smell of the aircraft will stay with me forever," she reflects. PTSD doesn’t have to stay with you forever. It’s a chapter in my book, it’s not an anchor that I wear around my legs forever or a new label that I have to have forever,” she said. “I’ve met so many people via social media who tag themselves as the broken soldier or the forgotten veteran. But just like anything in your body, the bone you break or whatever, with the right time and methods you can heal, and you can move on and recover. I really want to get the message out – just because I had PTSD does not mean I have to have it forever.” I wrote the book when I was going through my PTSD counselling, and it took me 3 weeks to write because I just had to brain dump everything and it [was] just stored on my laptop and I never thought about it. Then a friend of mine and I were out walking and I mentioned it and she was like you’ve got to send this off to a publisher, what happens if somebody wants to publish it? Then it got published. It was never written in any way to be read by anyone, never mind the whole world, but seemingly everyone has really enjoyed it.Upon leaving the RAF in 2019, Liz slowly unravelled after a series of traumatic events compounding her PTSD. This led to her trying to end her life in Aug 2020. 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. Help for Heroes changed my life. They helped me find me again. They made me feel seen once again. And I’m really moving forward into a positive space in life.” Life changing

All you could hear above the deafening roar of the rotors was the 'ting ting ting' of bullets hitting the Chinook' International Express AeroTime sat down with McConaghy to talk about the Chinook, women in the military and the importance of talking about our mental health. 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. Aged 21, Liz was the youngest member of the aircrew to deploy to Iraq and the only female crew member on the Chinook wing for four years, so her story is entirely unique. When asked what she missed most about the military, McConaghy placed an emphasis on “the people, the banter, the chats” but also said she misses “the smell of the aircraft”.WE NEED YOUR HELP, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google or your podcast playing app.