Book info

• Title Chinook Crew 'Chick'
• Author Liz McConaghy
• Year 2022
• Genre Memoir

Liz McConaghy, from a small town in County Down, spent a total of seventeen years flying with the RAF’s Chinook Fleet. Aged just 21, she was the youngest aircrew member to deploy to Iraq and was also the only female ‘crewman’ on the Chinook wing for four years. In her astounding career Liz McConaghy completed two deployments to Iraq followed by ten deployments to Helmand province in Afghanistan in support of the enduring Operation Herrick campaign. Liz’s inspiringly honest story reveals the highs and lows that she witnessed at war, and the cost that came with that both, physically and mentally for those involved.

Thoughts

This is such a good book from the longest serving female Chinook crew member, chronicling how she got into the RAF, what life was like on the ground in warzones (and in the air, of course), and then the difficulties of returning to a civilian life. This is told as though you’re just sitting, chatting with a friend, finding out more about the life, but it’s eye-opening on what life is like for a female in a male-dominated world, and how difficult it is to come back from deployment to a ’normal’ life. The final chapters of the book are really harrowing but highlight something so important - the mental health of veterans.

Rating: 4 / 5