"As a Chinook Flight Engineer, I'm responsible for all the maintenance that happens on the aircraft. I also fly with the crew on missions. Depending on what mission we're on, my job might be to lay in the cargo hold and call the Pilots into the hook-up crew and tell them how many feet away, how high up off the ground they are and when the load is hooked. The Chinook Crew Chief and the pilots have a special relationship. There are times when we're in certain situations when everyone's lives on board are in the Pilots' hands. They have to trust us and we have to trust them. We keep an eye on each other. I don’t think there's a better helicopter in the world than a Chinook. It flies like an airplane, and its avionics and advanced flight control system make it really nice for the pilot to fly, which makes it nice for us in the back. It has more power than it will ever need, which is nice at high altitudes. It's very versatile; it can do just about anything that you ask of it. It can carry cargo, a whole platoon full of infantry, it can land on the water, let rubber rafts drive right into it, it can land on a battlefield as a flying gas station. Any kind of disaster in the world, you generally see a Chinook there, unloading supplies, rescuing people. It's just a great helicopter."