Sea Cobra

Marine Sea Cobra overflies the house

It's been pretty slow here what with most of the unit being off to Kosovo, and me working with the rear detachment.  Kind of quiet...  So when I heard that distinctive Huey "wop-wop-wop" I grabbed my camera and caught this guy probably headed to 29 Palms.

In non-military related news, the Missus and I just got back from a trip to Havasupai in the Grand Canyon.  Trip report here.

Just stopping by...

These look like so much fun

We recently had some of our Regular Army friends drop by on their way to some training.  That really looks like a fun way to arrive at a location - I wonder if the airlines are working on it?

Just in case they need to go through the bad part of town

Annual Training

Waiting to extract some MPs

The last two weeks have been our annual training period, and unlike the last couple of years we actually got to do some training we needed instead of just fun stuff.  To clarify, we have new pilots and crew chiefs that have to progress through a series of specific tasks before they can become qualified.  While the Angel Thunder exercise last year and the Panama deployment the year prior were fun for those of us who were already qualified, and looked great on the battalion brag sheet, they didn't allow us to do the the progression training we really needed.

This year the number one mission was progression, and while we did have a couple of other commitments, they complemented rather that competed with our primary mission.  As one of the crew chief flight instructors I spent most of the time on night shift working with our trainees who had progressed to the NVG (night vision goggles) portion of the training.  The first couple of nights we supported some Air Force JTACs (Joint Tactical Air Controllers) in an exercise that involved us, combat search and rescue, a couple of Apache gunships, some F-16's and an AC-130.  We used this opportunity to take one of our crew chiefs who was nearly completed with training for an exposure to a difficult mission in as close to combat conditions as possible.  He did fine, and overall it was a good mission.

The MPs getting their safety briefing from a crew chief prior to loading

We also did a four ship night air assault to insert and extract some MPs in support of their training.  This is one of our standard missions, but not something they get to do very often.  We had to watch the weather since a storm was threatening the area, but it slid back down into Mexico so we didn't need to execute any of our contingency plans.  It was a dark night, and dust was a bit of an issue, but the training went well.

The above video was taken by SSG Marco Lechuga, a former member of out unit.  He's working with another command at the moment, but this is a small community so we expect him back eventually.  It's a neat slow motion video of sling operations from the point of view of the hook up team.  This night I was evaluating one of our trainees in NVG sling operations (he passed, btw).  It was a tough night - we had dust blowing in and 22 knot gusts from the south (left on the video.) It kept both him and the pilot working.  This is also a pretty good look at the world through NVGs.  The bright light on the right of the helicopter is the red position light.  It's actually no brighter than the green one on the other side, but the goggles are much more sensitive to red.

Inspiration

Morris

We went on a photo trip to Monument Valley recently, during which we met Morris.  Morris was a Corpsman (medic) with the 22nd Marines for the the invasion of Guam and after they were moved into the 6th Marine Division the invasion of Okinawa, where he lost a leg.  He went on to be a successful businessman in the chemical industry and for his upcoming 90th birthday decided to treat himself to a rather strenuous 5 day photography workshop. He was fun company and we had some great discussions with him during the week.  I hope I'm half as sharp and active when I reach 90.  Hell, even reaching 90 is an accomplishment.

Fly By

Marine AH-1 Cobras

This morning I heard the characteristic Huey thumping sound outside, and of course had to investigate.  It was a couple of Marine AH-1 Cobras, probably from MCAS Yuma.  When Bell made the Cobra, they used a lot of the UH-1 design to work from.  It could be said they took a Huey and shaved the fuselage down to 36" wide and started putting armament on it.  That would be a simplification, but isn't too far off the mark.  The Army retired the Cobra and Huey many years ago for the Apache and Blackhawk, but the Marines have stuck with it, with Bell still updated the designs.  I've always had a soft spot for the Cobra.

(Note:  It just struck me how much technology has changed since the Cobra was introduced.  I heard these birds, grabbed my camera and photographed them, downloaded, selected and post processed the image and posted it on the blog.  As I write this, they're probably still airborne.)

A Korean Memory

Even the tankers were loaded for bear...

OldAFSarge just posted a story that brought back some memories...  This was back in 1976 when we were both E-4's in our respective services, though we hadn't met.  In one of the periodic flare ups that happen with depressing regularity in Korea, a ruckus occurred on the DMZ that ended up in a lethal fight with axes of all things.  This snapshot was taken during our response from the USS Midway to the incident.  During our month of "practice strikes" on Nightmare range; conveniently located near the DMZ we operated pretty much round the clock dropping ordinance.  I remember taking this shot since the aircraft, an A-6A of VA-115 was assigned as a tanker, and you may notice he's carrying 500lb bombs and sidewinder missiles in addition to the refueling equipment.  He brought the missiles and fuel tanks back, but left the bombs on the target.  You should have seen what the aircraft actually assigned to bomb looked like!  As a historical note at the time CAG-5 aboard the Midway had two squadrons of F-4s (VF-151 and VF-161), two of A-7s (VA-56 and VA-93), and an A-6 squadron (VA-115) handling offense.  In a supporting role were VQ-1s EA-3, VMFP-3's RF-4s, VMAQ-2's EA-6s, VAW-115's E-2s, and HC-1's SH-3s.  Not a bad turn out for one ship.

Longbow over Arizona

Apache Longbow near Picacho Peak

We had a busy weekend spent mostly in the Flagstaff area doing high altitude training.  There was a fair amount of weather (rain, hail and thunderstorms) that we dodged in the process.  It was a nice break from the usually nice but hot weather in the Phoenix area.  Sunday we flew some people down to Marana and had an AH-64D Apache Longbow join up with us.  Getting air to air shots is not something you get to do every day, so I grabbed my iPhone and got this one.

Still seeing Falcons

F-16 Fighting Falcon arriving at Luke AFB.

We heard back in March that the first F-35 had been delivered to Luke AFB, and that more were to follow shortly.  I don't know how much flying they're doing as of yet, but I keep looking for them.  So far, no joy...  The F-16s are still the main show. 

645DF+/P20, 300mm @ f11, 1/400 sec and ISO 200.

Angel Thunder

Week One video

What is now the USAF Para Rescue concept was born in the Army Air Force during WWII out of the need to drop rescue personnel in remote locations to assist downed air crews.  Their mission has evolved over the years.  In the late 1940's and 1950's the cold war mission of the Air Force placed aircraft over areas where the only practical extraction was via ground, and the PJ's (para jumpers) were survival experts who dropped to downed crews with the skills to keep them alive till help arrived.  During the Viet Nam conflict the mission evolved into combat search and rescue, with the HH-3 and HH-53 helicopters becoming famous as "Jolly Green Giants."  With the Iraq and Afghanistan wars the mission was again modified to support special operations.

Yours truly providing a familiarization briefing to US and Columbian Special Forces troops.  (U.S. Air Force Photo by Airman 1st Class Chris Massey/Released)

Angel Thunder is an annual Personnel Recovery exercise where US and foreign forces can practice their combat search and rescue skills.  This year our unit was involved in several supporting missions.  In the video above, the Blackhawks without the refueling probes were ours.  The grey ones with the probes are the Air Force Pavehawks.  Those special forces troops and the Columbian special forces guys shown were some of our customers.  We did several air assaults with them, and I was lucky enough to crew on three of them.

Wrap up video

As part of this years exercise, we started by transporting the "White Cell" staff around for their various planning and coordination sessions.  The White Cell are kind of like the umpires of the exercise.  Other activities we were involved in were unconventional recoveries  and a downed aircrew exercise.  For the downed aircrew exercise we flew a mission that was supposed to put a Navy/Marine remote air control tower at a local airport.  The scenario had two ships shot down and a third damaged, with hostile ground activity requiring the downed crews and passengers to navigate cross country to the pick up point.  While we knew there would be a downed crew scenario, none of us knew when or how it was to come down.  The remote tower people were completely taken by surprise, and were not happy campers having to hike through mountainous desert with all their gear.  With them were a couple SERE (survival school) instructors evaluating the exercise.  After a strenuous 4 hour hike they made the PZ (pickup zone) in time for our Apache gunship escort to clear the area for us while we went in for a night recovery using night vision goggles.  This is pretty much how we make our money in Army aviation.  Fortunately for those on the ground one of the crew chiefs who was shot down with them gave them a brief on what to expect when we showed up.  A night helicopter pickup is not like you see in the movies - it's loud, blinding and painful, particularly in the desert where the debris kicked up by the rotor wash all seems to head for your face.  It's also disorienting being dark and dusty.  Being an exercise, we took our time picking them up to make sure we had everyone strapped in safely before picking up.  In a hostile area we would make sure we had the right number of people, close the doors and go.

For our air assault missions we would fly to Tuscon, pick up our troops and fly to the exercise area in Florence for the insertion.  The scenario was four friendlies had been captured and were being held by the bad guys.  Our ODA (Operational Detachment A) Team and the Columbian Special Forces soldiers would assault the target buildings and either gather intelligence, capture a high value target, rescue the hostages, or all of the above.  Being an exercise, of course the first couple of raids came up empty.  The first two raids were night operations, so there isn't much video of them.  The final raid was done during the day, with the troops rescuing the hostages, and capturing the "high value target," who regrettably succumbed to his injuries (simulated!).

This was an excellent two weeks of training - we flew 180 hours plus another 130 hours of simulator training for some of our new crew members.  We got to work with other services, federal and local agencies, foreign military and the special operations community, which is always a good time.  We also made some connections with people we can hopefully train with in the future.

A hat tip to the Air Force

KC-10 on approach to Luke AFB

Living as I do near Luke AFB, I get to see lots of F-16s in the pattern, as well as the occasional C-5, C-17 or KC-135.  Haven't seen many KC-10's, probably because the Air National Guard operates KC-135's out of Phoenix.  Today, however, I did manage to catch one on it's way in.  Since the fighter mafia won the PR wars in the Air Force, we see a lot of imagery of F-15's, F-16's and F-22's, but not much of the cargo and tanker force.  That's a pity, because those guys do a lot of heavy lifting.  Hat's off to you guys from an Army aviation type.

Ground Fire

Two of our crew chief trainees get familiar with the M-240H in its aircraft configuration.  Zeus, the company mascot supervises.

 We've started the training of a new group of crew chief hopefuls this year.  For the January drill we went to the Florence Military Reservation to do the primary introduction and ground fire portion of the machinegun training.  It's a lot easier to get familiar with these weapons on the ground before taking them out in a noisy, vibrating helicopter. 

Primary Marksmanship Instruction and safety brief

 Everyone has at least been exposed to the M-240 in basic training, but that tends to be a short session and is using the M-240B ground version.  Instruction is provided on the specifics of our weapons, how to strip them down and clean them, and how to convert them from aircraft to ground use.  The finer points of aerial gunnery will wait until our air training later this year.  This drill they engaged targets from 100 to 800 meters away.  Each person had 400 rounds for familiarization, and another 400 for the qualification exercise.

The Battalion Commander gets a turn on the line as well.

 Once we had all of our guys taken care of, we still had a little ammo left, so our assigned medic (the Army always has one assigned for a live fire exercise) got a chance to shoot, and the Battalion Commander also took a turn on the line.

A range day is one of the training sessions that everyone enjoys, even though there's a lot of work involved setting it up.  Our full time staff did a pretty good job on the prep work, so even with the minor issues that always pop up on this kind of thing everything went on schedule and good training was had.  

Training... It's what we do

136 launches on a pilot training mission

Having been on a war footing for the last decade it's easy to forget what the National Guard really does.  Using sporting terms we provide a deeper bench for the active Army (and Air Force) with the additional mission of providing support as needed for the state.  Back in the civil unrest days of the '60's it was the National Guard that was in the papers at demonstrations because while it's against the law for the military to act as a domestic police force, a state governor can use the Guard.  That didn't always work out for the best, and thankfully it's not a mission we get called out to do these days. More common state missions are disaster relief and support - see Colorado guard assisting during the flooding in the Boulder area for just a recent example. Here in Arizona the Guard regularly responds to flooding and brush fire calls.

Now that the wars are winding down and we don't have an impending deployment on the schedule we're starting to grapple with the return to a peacetime status, though this is going to be something of a process.  In Aviation this is going to mean fewer flying hours available to the units, and the while the types of training we do will largely remain the same, the quantity of it will likely go down.  How much depends on what kind of budgets we end up with over the next few years.

Some of that money will come from DOD.  If you've ever wondered why a state would have a unit that does it little visible use (field artillery or helicopter gunships, for example) the answer is simply that it's a lot cheaper to keep that equipment in the Guard than it is to keep it in the active inventory.  The state gets the benefit of the additional man power along with the funds to maintain the equipment. Everyone is happy.

So while things will get understandably tighter, we'll still be training pilots, crew chiefs and maintenance staff.  We'll be doing fewer advanced training missions, saving those for our annual training, and I expect over time our staffing will be reduced, along with the active services.  It's going to be a change, but I think that will be a good thing.

Wash Rack

On the wash rack

It's easy to forget that for every hour of flight time there are several hours of maintenance time.  The amount varies per airframe, but is substantial.  Most of the maintenance comes in the form of inspections, preventative maintenance and phase (time driven) maintenance.  The amount of time actually having to fix broken stuff is only a small part of it.  Here a crew chief washes his helicopter, a regular occurrence even here in the desert.

Southern Visitor

AH-64D Apache

Our first battalion operates Apaches out of Marana, just north of Tuscon.  They've decided to stage one of their gunships at our facility to make life easier on the soldiers who live up Phoenix way.  Unlike most National Guard jobs, aviation requires a considerable amount of time beyond the "one weekend a month, two weeks in the summer" long considered the norm.  I think this is on a trial basis for the moment, but I think it's a good idea.

You've no doubt noticed the above picture is in black and white...  I recently got a nice film camera and have been testing out a process to digitize the images.  I developed the negative normally then scanned it into my Epson V600 photo scanner, which handles negatives and slides as well as prints.  Next I'll be trying color negatives.

Hasselblad 500C/M with the 150mm f4 Sonnar lens set at f22, 1/500 sec using Tri X Professional film (ASA 400). 

Drill Weekend

Chalk 2 poses for us - we tried to give everyone in both birds a chance to get a decent picture

This was a drill weekend, the first one in some time with the full unit.  We had lots going on with some of the new guys getting gunnery practice at Gila Bend (35,000 rounds worth, yee-haw!) and the Med det getting ready for their upcoming deployment.  I was assigned to crew on a pax flight up to Prescott supporting some Air National Guard troops.

More after the break

New Arrival

85-24449

Well, new in the UH-60A world...  We just picked up a bird last belonging to the regular Army in Alaska.  It's not particularly old for an A model having been made in 1985.  We have a couple helicopters that are 34 years old.  This one is exceptional in that if the logbook is to be believed it have just over 9800 hours of flight time on it.  Most of our birds are in the 4000 to 6000 hour range.  This one is an A+ model, better known as Frankenhawk - it has the larger engines of the L models which makes it pretty frisky, although there are limits on the transmission to keep you from pulling full power.  The will be going to the Med Det so the red cross markings will be staying put.

Hero Flight

The Hero Mission crews

Our company had the honor to help take William "Billy" Warneke home today, transporting his remains from Prescott to Marana for his funeral.  Billy was one of he Granite Mountain Hot Shot team, and was also a Marine. 

News story here.

Semper Fi.

And that's a wrap...

Home Station

The Panama mission is in the books, now.  Our three helicopters were delivered via Antonov yesterday, and the last of our soldiers arrived back this afternoon.  All in all an interesting time.  We'll be spending the next couple weeks going over the helicopters with a fine tooth comb to catch any corrosion.  We expect that to be an ongoing process for the foreseeable future.

A Different Kind of Mission

Parked in a field in Canita, Panama

It can be forgiven if the image that first comes to mind at the words "military mission" involve weapons, body armor, and troops moving to contact.  After all, for the last decade we've been involved in shooting wars in several countries.  There is another kind of mission that has been getting less press, but is important none the less, that being the humanitarian mission.  The National Guard unit I belong to along with other Guard, Reserve and active duty Army and Air Force have spent the last several months in Panama providing medical aid and engineering support in the form of building schools and clinics for the Panamanian people as a part of Operation Beyond the Horizon. Being a Blackhawk unit our support has been peripheral to main mission, consisting of standing by in case a medical emergency required evacuation to one of the hospitals available.  We also moved medical supplies and people around the country side and did a little training along the way.

More after the break...

Cook Out

Cookin'

To close out our rotation at Panama, we had a unit cook out at the flight line.  Here out commanding officer fries up some fresh alligator.  Also on the menu were fresh caught lobster and hot dogs for the sea food adverse.