Local woman a genuine heroine in Iraq

By Lori Porter Acorn Staff Writer

Esther Bley

Heroes do come in all sizes.

Petite Capt. Esther Bley, 29, of Westlake Village, an HH-60G "Pave Hawk" helicopter pilot for the 129th unit of the California Air National Guard, is five feet two inches tall. But there isn’t a giant in the world who could reach the heights Bley has.

After graduating from high school in 1992, Bley attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on a full Air Force ROTC scholarship. While at MIT, she interned as a research assistant at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), contributing to the engineering design of the Cassini Spacecraft sent to Saturn in 1997.

The ROTC scholarship required her to fulfill a four-year active duty military service commitment, but upon her MIT graduation in ’97, Bley seized an opportunity to trade that for a six-year Air Force National Guard or Air Force Reserve commitment. Bley was delighted by the prospect to pursue a career in aerospace engineering while still serving her country as a reservist.

It was just weeks later that Bley landed a position at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space in Sunnyvale, Calif. as a systems engineer on a missile program. On the weekends Bley fulfilled her reservist duty as an aircraft maintenance officer at an Air Force base nearby.

Due to lack of experience, reservists are often denied the opportunity to serve. And after graduating at the top of her class, Bley felt left out and said, "Not deploying is like training hard all year with the varsity football team but never being allowed to dress for the game."

Working full-time while also attending Stanford University in pursuit of a Ph.D., Bley was still determined to better her chances for deployment, so she put in extra hours at her reserve position. "Every reservist, particularly those who have served several years," Blay said, "ends up making a choice: perform well in their civilian career or perform well in their military career. I chose the latter."

During the spring of 2000, Bley’s Air National Guard Unit offered her a two-year training opportunity to become a combat search-and-rescue helicopter pilot. She jumped at the chance. Taking a leave of absence from Lockheed and Stanford, she began to train.

Though this feisty young woman remained busy, she still had time to fall in love with Leo Bley, a project executive for IBM. The two married on Thanksgiving Day 2000.

In August 2002, just one month after becoming a helicopter pilot, this feminine and fearless newlywed boarded a plane destined for a remote base in eastern Turkey to begin a 10-month involuntary mobilization supporting Operation Northern Watch and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Bley’s search-and-rescue unit flew helicopters daily from the Turkish city of Diyarbakir to the border of Iraq, landing in remote mountainous areas. The mission was to watch for any American or British reconnaissance aircraft pilots shot down by Iraqi military aircraft who were flying in restricted "no fly" zones over northern Iraq, which the U.S. established after the Gulf War.

The helicopters Bley and others flew during Operation Northern Watch were equipped with two machine guns that had only two minutes worth of ammunition. These helicopters were also armed with something far superior though, said Bley, brave parachutists and rescue jumpers who would seize the offensive when on a heroic mission.

Bley has many memories, good and bad, but her favorite is one that involved an important mission to rescue a ham. While in Turkey, Bley was in charge of coordinating holiday dinners for a unit of 90 soldiers. Her husband decided to help out by sending a ham from a Honey Baked Ham store in Los Angeles. He had to jump through many hoops to finally get the ham, frozen and packed in dry ice, to Diyarbakir in time for Thanksgiving.

When word came into Bley’s unit that the ham had arrived at an air base post office in Incirlik, she boarded her helicopter to rescue the ham that arrived still frozen, making that Thanksgiving dinner exceptional.

"It was difficult spending Thanksgiving and Christmas without my husband, but eating holiday meals with a large military family was a special experience," she said.

After waiting for a replacement to fill her position, an exhausted Bley finally returned home last February.

But it was just one month later that the U.S. declared war on Iraq. Once again Bley was deployed, this time going to the city of Bashur in Iraq. Though she was far from Baghdad and other areas with heavy combat, she felt vulnerable in Iraq, especially since there were only 20 people, some Kurds, guarding her unit of 500.

Bley describes Bashur, a location with the same latitude and climate as Santa Barbara, as muddy and sometimes cold.

Looking at a photo album that contains pictures of her friends in military uniforms with helicopters parked next to camouflaged tents, Bley talked about how fortunate she is to be home and alive, while pointing to a photo of a soldier who was killed during combat in Iraq.

She said her time in Iraq, just one month, was like being on a long camping trip.

Bley came home in April, happy to be reunited with her husband (who’s spent more time without his wife than with her in the three years they’ve been married).

While still a reservist on weekends, Bley plans to finish working on her doctorate degree and said she’ll return to Stanford if her other choice—an opportunity to go to Cambridge in England—doesn’t materialize.

Currently Bley volunteers as a tutor at the Boys and Girls Club of Conejo and Las Virgenes. She enjoys working with the kids, who were surprised when she flew a helicopter last week over Los Cerritos Middle School in T.O., the location of the Boys and Girls Club. Her main goal is to show little girls that they can have big dreams and accomplish any goal, Bley said.

Bley was recently named Officer of the Year for her unit and is being considered for a California National Guard Officer of the Year award.