U.S. Army’s Blackhawk Helicopter

FORT HOOD, TX, UNITED STATES
201st Press Camp Headquarters

Army Reserve Soldiers from the 1-158 Assault Helicopter Battalion assist Army Active Duty Soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas. From sling loads, air assaults, to transportation and medivacs, the U.S. Army’s Blackhawk Helicopter is a versatile aircraft suited for any type of mission.

U.S. Army Spc. Christian Ward, assigned to 2-4 General Support Aviation Battalion, 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, looks out of a Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter during MEDEVAC hoist training at Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base, Romania. This training increases the unit’s readiness by familiarizing them with life-saving equipment.

Blackhawk Helicopter Pilots

Chief Warrant Officer 3 David Flores (left) and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Tom Morris (right) talk to one another while piloting a UH-60 Blackhawk over North Carolina during a survey mission to observe damage caused by Hurricane Florence. Two UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and 13 Army Soldiers assigned to a Lincoln-based Nebraska National Guard aviation unit support the ongoing Hurricane Florence relief operations from the Army Aviation Support Facility at the Raleigh International Airport in North Carolina.

The Company G, 2-104th General Aviation Battalion Soldiers are equipped and trained to conduct search and rescue operations, as well as air movement missions. The Nebraska National Guard’s support was arranged by the sharing of resources through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, the nation’s state-to-state mutual aid system.

(Bagram, Afghanistan) The American flag waves in the wind with a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter assigned to Task Force Shadow parked on the flight line.

U.S. Army Special Forces Soldiers, assigned to 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), prepare to load onto a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter prior to executing a full mission profile on, Nellis AFB, Nevada. The purpose of this training was to give the Air Force students going through the Joint Terminal Attack Controller course, a realistic combat mission-training scenario.

An Air Force student, going through the Joint Terminal Attack Controller course, relays coordinates to an A-10 Warthog for an air strike during a combat training exercise with Special Forces Soldiers from 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) at the Nevada Test and Training Range near Nellis AFB, Nevada. The purpose of this training was to give the Air Force students going through the JTAC course, a realistic combat mission-training scenario.

Blackhawk Helicopter Uncovered Video

The Blackhawk helicopter is a fairly versatile airframe. It can do anything from sling loads, carrying stuff underneath it, to passenger transport. They can do wildfire management and it can do aerosol operations.

Today we’re going to show you a little bit about the capabilities of the aircraft in terms of maneuverability, different areas that it can land in throughout the training are up here at Fort Hood.

CW2 Brian Barbour
1-158 Assault Blackhawk Helicopter Battalion

The crew chiefs in the pilots, we work very closely together, very tight knit group. We get down and dirty along in the aircraft with the enlisted. We bring them into everything, and were out with the Blackhawk helicopter aircraft fixing and doing things just like they are.

It is a two-pilot aircraft and both pilots are equipped and capable of basically running everything in the aircraft if they need to. So when we first take off, one might be the pilot in command and he might be managing the cockpit while the other guy does all the control work and actually flies a helicopter, but five minutes after take off, they may just swap, just because one’s tired or one wants to do this, or for whatever reason.

CW2 Cameron Caylor
1-158 Assault Blackhawk Helicopter Battalion

Crew chiefs are overall in charge of the aircraft from the seat back. We are like a second set of eyes for the pilots to make sure that the tail is clear as we’re coming into a Title Z and heaven forbid we have a mechanical malfunction that we are able to diagnose and fix the issue if we can there.

So we are an Army Reserve Unit and we are supporting 166th and 291st active duty here, supporting any air missionary requests that they have or any air assets that they need.

Thank you U.S. Army Sgt. Timothy Yao for the video!