Chinook Crew 'Chick': Highs and Lows of Forces Life from the Longest Serving Female RAF Chinook Force Crewmember

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Yes, I have,” she said. “Having had the book come out [all her mental health challenges are] now completely out in the world. And the more I’m talking about it, the more it is genuinely OK now.

And I never not wanted to go and if I hadn’t gone, it meant somebody else had to go in my place. Somebody else [who] had to do an extra one or one of the new guys who wasn’t combat ready had to go instead when he wasn’t quite ready to go. I was always really worried that someone would have to take my bullet, you feel like if you don’t go, what if something happens and I’m meant to be there and I’m not? That kind of kept me in the job, certainly for those ten years. “ It tells me a lot about how my own mental state was by this time of the campaign as even this didn’t make me bat an eyelid or flinch,” she recalls. As I read this book, my admiration for this woman really grew and grew. She worked SO hard and she put her body through the wringer as she did it. This is one person who really gave her all for her country and her mates. So sad about the soldiers who didn't make it :( Another aspect of the book which touched me deeply was when the author was writing of her own darkest hour. I remember studying suicidal ideation during my psychotherapy training and I have to say that the author has done a fantastic job of describing the dissociative thought process which can lead someone down the dark path to suicide. The logical thought process, cut off from all emotion, is starkly illustrated in the book, as is the example of how easy it is to just fall through the net of those who have a duty of care to protect, such as doctors, pharmacists and counselors. When will those in power learn that under-funding and overstretching these services really does cost lives? No-one should be allowed to fall through the net. No-one who reaches out for help should be sent away with a handful of leaflets and promises of a referral that can take months to action. The bad stuff is the same stuff that everyone else goes through, not so much the PTSD and mental health.”Upon leaving the RAF in 2019, Liz slowly unravelled after a series of traumatic events compounding her PTSD. This led to her trying to end her life in Aug 2020. At 19, Liz, now 40, left her home in Northern Ireland to join the RAF and three years later, aged just 21, she was named the youngest aircrew member to be deployed to Iraq. She was also the only female ‘crewman’ on the Chinook wing for four years and the longest serving as well. I wrote the book when I was going through my PTSD counselling, and it took me 3 weeks to write because I just had to brain dump everything and it [was] just stored on my laptop and I never thought about it. Then a friend of mine and I were out walking and I mentioned it and she was like you’ve got to send this off to a publisher, what happens if somebody wants to publish it? Then it got published. It was never written in any way to be read by anyone, never mind the whole world, but seemingly everyone has really enjoyed it.

If you are quite open and authentic about that then it gives other people a bit of an idea. If you’re struggling and for you, if you’re always saying the number 3 for a few days in a row, [and] you’re like ‘this isn’t good’, maybe speak to someone. When people ask twice, then sometimes that’s just enough to open the tiny tears tap.” Liz was only 21 when she became the youngest Chinook crewmember to serve in Iraq, and then became the longest serving female member. Commenting on this year’s campaign and winner, Alidad Moghaddam, CEO of Defence Discount Service, said: However, her most significant honour of all her duties was serving on the Medical Emergency Response Team, or MERT, flying ambulance as it was more commonly known. This involved recovering wounded soldiers from the battlefield, often under fire.When I was reading about the simulated torture scenarios she had to get through, I was absolutely shivering inside. How anyone can get through that kind of thing for real, I just don't know. Man's inhumanity to man clearly knows no bounds. I think if you want that extra ‘ohh, isn’t she amazing? Look, she’s the girl doing this job,’ you’re almost saying that they’re not capable of it in the first place.’ Good on her for being so honest about the psychological struggles she went through. I am sure there are lots of ex-service people who appreciate reading that as well. We’re extremely proud to honour Liz as our Inspirational Woman of the Year 2023, and would like to express our deepest gratitude for her altruism and dedication to uplifting the lives of others.”

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Now hired as a popular motivational speaker, Liz McConaghy shares her heartfelt stories of battling mental health in the RAF. Emphasising the importance of looking after wellbeing and mental health, Liz encourages others to reach out for help when struggling. Turning adversity into positivity, Liz’s talks focus on finding hope and overcoming adversity, sharing anecdotes from the darkest times in her life and how she has emerged from the darkest of places. If you are looking for a military veteran with a truly inspirational story to tell who will provide audiences with the tools needed to build the path to a new life, look no further than Liz McConaghy.

Liz became the longest serving female Chinook aircrew member after serving for 17 years. Liz reflects on why she stayed for so long, and why she eventually had to leave. After calmly writing a suicide note to her family and friends, she began to swallow 95 pills, one by one, before closing her eyes for one last time, “my brain finally at peace”. Aged 21, Liz was the youngest member of the aircrew to deploy to Iraq and the only female crew member on the Chinook wing for four years, so her story is entirely unique. From 2007 McConaghy crewed the Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT), a high-octane M.A.S.H-style air ambulance service in which a Chinook was on constant readiness at Bastion to fly to the middle of the battlefield and rescue seriously wounded soldiers. On her busiest day of operations in 2008, she and her crew flew 14 separate sorties – including one where five British soldiers had been killed at a forward operating base.In 2001, Liz joined the Royal Air Force, deployed as a member of the Chinook Aircrew. Based at RAF Odiham, Liz became an Aircrew Instructor in 2010 and also served as a member of the Medical Emergency Response Team, saving hundreds of lives in the Helmand Province. Flying into war zones to rescue severely wounded soldiers, Liz flew the Boeing CH-47 Chinook – often referred to as the ‘flying ambulance’. Having witnessed horrific scenarios, Liz began to struggle with her mental health, attempting to take her own life in 2020. Waking up in Basingstoke Intensive Care, Liz made the decision to turn her life around. She is now living in Basingstoke near the airbase she worked at, RAF Odiham — where the Chinooks are based — after spending a total of 17-and-a-half years flying with the RAF’s Chinook fleet.