When the starboard engine on his Huey helicopter failed about 200 feet above Iraqi desert in 2003, Marine Corps pilot Capt. Matthew P. Capodanno knew his ride was in trouble.

“We were running on a single engine, and we knew we had to get to the ground,” Capodanno said during a recent interview in his office at Naval Station Newport.

Then the situation got worse. The other engine failed.

At that point, Capodanno said, he didn’t have time to be frightened. Instead, he and the other three crewmembers went on automatic.

“You are trained to dissect the problem, to analyze the problem and to try to correct the problem,” he said. “The problem was the ground was coming up, and we had try to stop it from happening or at least cushion it from happening.”

Relying on their training, he and the other pilot did everything they could to save the aircraft and the crew before touching ground.

“Fortunately, with a little help from above, we were able to keep the aircraft upright, keep it from rolling over and keep the aircraft from catching on fire,” Capodanno said.

When the aircraft hit ground, it bounced several times. A crewmember was thrown from the helicopter, which then bounced on him twice. Capodanno and the other pilot both had back injuries, but he described all the injuries as minor.

“God loves Marines,” he said. “He kept us all safe.”

For almost two years now, Capodanno has been in less hazardous duty as the executive officer of the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport.

After spending several years either in North Carolina or Iraq, he said he is happy to be in Rhode Island, where the weather is cooler.

“It’s nice to have winter again,” said Capodanno, a native of Delaware. He and his wife, Julie, who is from Ohio, both are used to the cold.

Capodanno, who graduated in 1998 from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., attributed the engine failure to a 24-hour sandstorm that hit southern Iraq the day before the crash.

At the time, he was attached to Marine Light Attack Squadron 269 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom I.

During the First Marine Division advance on Baghdad, he flew the UH-1N Huey on many missions, including reconnaissance, command and control and some light attack, close aid support. The Huey is the same helicopter seen in movies about Vietnam, he said.

The sandstorm hit on March 25 and the entire county was bogged down, he said.

“If I wanted to brave the elements and stand at the front of my helicopter, I couldn’t see the back of the helicopter,” he said. “We were sitting in the cockpit and watching our air speed indicator — while we were stationary, nothing moving — go to 60 knots.”

Although the crew did what it could to protect the aircraft from the sand, some did get into engine parts, causing the failures.

From the time the first engine failed to the time the aircraft hit the ground took no more than five to 10 seconds. “At least it seemed like five to 10 seconds,” he said.

After the aircraft was on the ground, the crew secured critical components so they would not fall into enemy hands, even though some of them were injured and had difficulty walking.

When Marine Humvees arrived to evacuate them, Capodanno and his crew learned of another danger they were in: The helicopter had landed in a minefield.

Capodanno said his reaction was: “Oh, great. What else can happen today?”

The crew was careful to only step where footprints were left in the sand. The crew and aircraft parts were loaded safely onto the Humvees and taken out of the area. The crew went aboard a ship for medical evacuation and eventually back to the States.

Back in Iraq

That wasn’t Capodanno’s only injury in Iraq.

After recuperating, he joined the Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 263, which was assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

In July 2004, they were deployed in Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom II. Saddam Hussein was out of power at that point. Capodanno’s unit was assigned to North Babil Province, south of Baghdad, at a camp named for Robert Kalsu, an Army officer and a Buffalo Bills football player who was killed in Vietnam.

“The Marines’ mission from day to day was to find insurgents, find weapons caches and to protect not only themselves, but the Iraqi people,” Capodanno said. “Our presence overhead gave them the opportunity to do so with less of a threat.”

Capodanno said his crew flew multiple missions every day, primarily escorting convoys and in light air support.

In early October, he was in his tent trying to get some rest before going on a night mission when the camp was the target of a mortar attack. He said 11 or 12 shells hit the camp during the day. One of the last rounds landed in his tent.

“It shattered my right tibia, my shin bone, and I had lacerations on my lower extremities,” he said. “Fortunately, we had enough time to get our flak jackets on, so my upper extremities were protected, thank God.”

He was taken to Baghdad, where he underwent surgery to stabilize the injuries. He then was flown to Lundstahl Regional Medical Facility in Germany. Eventually, he was transferred to Camp Lejeune, N.C. After a couple weeks in the hospital, he joined the air group there for paper work and “lots and lots and lots of therapy.”

He received a Purple Heart for that injury.

‘Wonderful opportunity’

When he arrived at NAPS in Newport in 2005, Capodanno was not as mobile as he is now. Pointing to a cane in his office, he said it was his “partner” for quite a while.

“It was tough, because I would see the students running around and hitting the ground hard, and I wanted to be part of that,” he said.

“I promised that first class that by the end of the year, I would run with them on their last battalion run. I was able to do so.”

Capodanno’s injuries are healing. He no longer uses his cane.

“My leg feels much better,” he said. ‘My back continues to heal and I’ve been fully cleared to fly again.”

In addition to the Purple Heart, Capodanno holds the Air Medal with 8 strike/flights, the Iraqi Campaign Medal and various unit awards. He was named the Officer of the Year at Naval Station Newport.

“This has been a wonderful opportunity,” he said of his tour in Newport, where he is second in command at NAPS. “Hopefully, I have been able to make a difference in the future generations of Marine Corps officers and Navy officers.”

His time here, however, is limited. He will leave Newport in May and after some refresher flight training, he will rejoin his unit. He likely will be back in Iraq or in Afghanistan by September.

“Either way, I will be in the sandbox and helping the Marines,” he said.

The marine captain has been selected for promotion to major, and Navy Capt. Leland H. Sebring, commanding officer at NAPS, said he hopes the promotion will be official before Capodanno leaves in May.

Asked how his wife reacted to news that he would be going back to Iraq, Capodanno said, “I am a lucky man because my wife has been with me every step of the way. It was harder for her, I think, to see me hurt than it was for me to be hurt.”

He said both he and his wife love the Marine Corps and the Marine Corps way of life.

“As much as we love Rhode Island, we are looking forward to spending more time with the Marine Corps,” he said.

Send staff writer James A. Johnson e-mail at Johnson@NewportRI.com

http://www.newportdailynews.com/articles/2008/02/04/news/doc47a72e78e130c575434849.txt