BISMARCK (AP) -- The father of an Army pilot involved in a dramatic rescue in Iraq says he got the news from his son's commander, and it made him proud.
The military said a Kiowa helicopter was forced down by insurgents south of Baghdad on Monday and two pilots in an Apache helicopter ferried the men to safety. The two downed pilots were slightly injured.
Micah Johnson, 25, was one of two Apache pilots involved in the rescue. He gave one of the rescued pilots, Chief Warrant Officer Steven Cianfrini, his seat in the Apache, then strapped the other rescued pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Mark Burrows, to the gun mount on one side of the helicopter and tied himself onto the mount on the other side.
About half an hour later, they were safely on the ground in Baghdad.
"It was kind of scary, but I'm very proud," Mike Johnson, Micah's father, told The Bismarck Tribune on Thursday. "I didn't know it had happened until afterwards. His mother was really nervous about it, after hearing what had happened, but she is very proud, too."
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Mike Johnson, a Grand Forks native, worked in North Dakota for years as a border patrol agent.
Micah attended elementary school in Lignite, a town of 175 people in the northwestern part of the state, about 10 miles south of Saskatchewan. He is on his second tour of duty in Iraq, with the 1-227 Attack Reconnaissance Battalion from Fort Hood, Texas. His detachment commander called his father with news of the rescue Tuesday afternoon.
The elder Johnson and his wife, Darcy, a Dunseith native, now live in New York. Micah Johnson lists his address as Del Rio, Texas.
"All our kids were born and raised in North Dakota, but I guess he calls Texas home now," Johnson said. "I transferred there (in 1995), and that's where he went to junior high, high school and went into the Army."
Mike Johnson said the last Apache shot down in Iraq, on Feb. 2, also was from his son's unit. Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jason Defrenn was killed in the attack.
"It was another very close friend of his, like a big brother," Johnson said. "(He was) also one I was proud to call my adopted son."
