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NORTH SALT LAKE -- A Utah helicopter pilot came home from Iraq in 2007 to a hero's welcome after working for the controversial security company called Blackwater. Now Dan Laguna has published a book about his experiences in violent places around the world because we wants people to know the details of his unusual life.
"I've helped in some way with the war on terror, with terrorism; a very small part, but I've helped," Laguna said.
In Utah, Laguna has flown medical and news helicopters, including KSL's Chopper 5. But his new book is about decades of special military operations, including one that cost his own brother's life in an intense battle.
Art Laguna was killed with four others when his Blackwater chopper was shot out of the sky by Iraqi insurgents. Dan Laguna had been commanding the fatal operation from another chopper and flew over the streets of Baghdad searching for his brother's crashed helicopter.
"The insurgents had drug the bodies out, and one of them was my brother," Laguna recalled in an interview in his North Salt Lake home. "They found a blood trail down this alley. We figure they were trying to drag them out to the Tigris River."
When Dan Laguna returned to Utah from his brother's funeral, his neighbors in North Salt Lake planted the Stars and Stripes all over his neighborhood.
"For me, I've come to grips with it, based on my beliefs," Laguna said about the deaths of his brother and four other Blackwater colleagues. "I know they're in a better place."
Laguna's career is the kind they make movies about. It's echoed even by the ringtone on his cell phone -- the theme from "Mission Impossible." His new book is called "You Have to Live Hard to be Hard."
Laguna spent 30 years in the U.S. Army as a Green Beret and a chopper pilot, mostly in a special operations role. He served in numerous dangerous places including Somalia, Bosnia and Iraq.
"We've gone other places that we don't talk about just yet," Laguna said.
After a brief retirement, in 2004 he went to Iraq for Blackwater. He managed the company's aviation division which was given the mission of providing overhead security for diplomats. His book includes photos of his encounters in Baghdad with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and ex-President George W. Bush.
On one occasion, Laguna's Blackwater team swung into action to save a foreign diplomat. A roadside bomb blew up the car of the Polish ambassador. Laguna commanded a rescue operation, flying above the scene while bullets flew. One of his choppers landed and rescued the wounded ambassador. Laguna later won a Silver Star, not from the U.S., but from the government of Poland.
Blackwater is controversial and has been accused of wrongdoing in Iraq. Laguna admits he doesn't tell all in his book, but he speaks positively about the company and of his own long career. He says his book has a message for everyone.
"It doesn't matter if you're a school teacher, it doesn't matter what you do in life," Laguna said. "Things get hard, and you can't give up. You've got to move on with life. Life goes on. We lose loved ones every day."
In his latest venture, Laguna is working for King Abdullah of Jordan. His mission this time is teaching Jordanian pilots who just formed a counter-terrorism unit.
E-mail: hollenhorst@ksl.com
