FORT RUCKER, Ala. (January 16, 2015) -- As Army Aviation evolves, so must the maintenance facilities and training aids that go along with it.
Russell Hall, U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence deputy to the commanding general, along with Sgt. Maj. Jesus Ruiz, Aviation Branch training sergeant major, visited USAACE's maintenance training brigade, the 128th Aviation Brigade at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, Jan. 8.
The goal was to talk with personnel and see firsthand the progress made on necessary new facilities designed to support training requirements.
"I'm always thrilled to see the spirit and professionalism of the Soldiers we encounter at the 128th Aviation Brigade. They are an extremely dynamic team that sets the course on achieving success every day," Hall said.
That success includes the disposition of Kiowa Warrior equipment, on-boarding new Military Occupation Specialties and bringing in new teams, and establishing a partnership with the local Air Force wing to construct new facilities, according to Hall.
"Aviation is a team sport and maintainers are combat essential to your total mission. It takes the maintainer, and a team of teams to ensure the airworthiness of our aircraft so that the pilots can have confidence that the piece of equipment they have learned to fly is ready to go from a maintenance standpoint," Hall said.
The 128th Avn. Bde. trains enlisted and warrant officer Aviation Soldiers to become world-class maintainers for USAACE. In fiscal year 2014, the brigade trained more than 6,000 students.
The tour of new facilities included barracks, proposed workout facility and high-bay maintenance training facilities.
"As we go forward with the Army's Aviation Restructure Initiative, we have to make sure as a higher headquarters we are on the same sheet of music with our supporting organizations," Ruiz said.
Mark Jones, 128th Avn. Bde. deputy to the commander, pointed out the limitations of the older buildings.
"Those were built in the 1950s and 1960s when we had single-engine airplanes and single-engine helicopters -- real small stuff. That's why there weren't a lot of high-bay facilities here," Jones said. "We designed the new facilities with a high bay so as our load changes, our mission changes, we can get a Chinook anywhere. That's the long pole in the tent."
The three new maintenance training high-bay facilities the 128th received in 2014 are climate controlled to support high-tech training devices.
"We've come a long way from just having old aircraft sitting here. The new facility allows us to have the electronic trainers. Before, we had them in a non-air conditioned space and they were breaking down all the time because they were overheating. Even though they have their own air-conditioning unit for the each device, that whole environment needs to be air conditioned. It allows us to train more. We can potentially run three shifts through there," Jones said.
The new high-bay facilities include thermal-heated floors and Virtual Immersive Environment training where Soldiers can completely take apart an engine, turn it around and spin it up on the big screen, which allows more diagnostic type training, according to Jones.
"It's a 70-percent hands-on course, so 30 percent of the time they're in the classroom. Then they go out and work through the VIE, and then they work hands-on on the actual training device or aircraft. In the case of avionics, it's usually a training device because we don't usually put electricity to our Category B aircraft," Jones said.
Ruiz said he looks forward to seeing the brigade, with the help of Training and Doctrine Command, the wing and the garrison, to move the aid station closer to the Soldiers.
"That aid station is there for Soldiers. The closer it is, the easier it is for Soldiers to use the facility, minimizing the impact on the Soldiers training. We owe the field quality trained Soldiers, and the sooner we can get them through and out to the combat aviation brigades -- that's our job," Ruiz said.
Soldiers have dubbed it the "green mile" -- where the road runs from the old barracks Soldiers used in the past, to the cluster of new buildings cropping up that reflects a new era of training. That mile will be drastically reduced when they move into the new barracks near the mess hall, according to Ruiz.
"As the Army goes to the campus style of training, I look forward to the 128th Soldiers having a campus where they can train and sustain as we go through this," Ruiz said. "It's not going to happen overnight. As long as we keep pushing in the right direction -- and that's our job here at headquarters, to set the conditions for them and help them out as much as we can."
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