FORT RUCKER, Ala. (February 27, 2015) -- UH-60 Black Hawks swoop down kicking up dust and debris in all directions as Ranger candidates jump out to the ground to tackle their next mission in the woods of northern Florida.
That's just one event in the training that the 1st Battalion, 212th Aviation Regiment's Class 15-920 conducted Feb. 19 with the U.S Army Ranger School in a full, student-led mission training exercise that involved more than 10 Black Hawks, dozens of Ranger candidates and multiple flight hours.
During the training exercise, Fort Rucker flight students had to conduct an air assault operation where they flew in formation to a designated pickup zone to transport Rangers to a designated drop-off point marked by smoke flares.
"We've been coordinating with the Rangers, and we've trained our students on not only how to fly, but how to tactically employ the Black Hawk," said David Kober, E Company, 1st Bn., 212th Avn. Regt. tactical operations officer, operations officer and instructor pilot. "They've planned the mission, they've given mission briefings, given the update briefings, and now they have to go ahead and move down to Eglin Air Force Base (Florida) and move all the Rangers to allow them to conduct their mission. Our guys get to fly with personnel in the back of the Black Hawk and actually do a full-blown mission."
This type of training is the epitome of what Aviation is about, and cements the bond between Aviation and the ground forces, said Capt. Kenneth Dougher, E Co., 1st Bn., 212th Avn. Regt., company commander.
"That bond between infantry and Aviation is important -- it starts here," he said. "We focus on the base tasks at flight school, but this allows the students an introduction into mission tasks and what they may see out in the units.
"The main purpose of this training is to support our brethren. The whole reason that Aviation exists is to support our ground forces," Dougher continued. "We also want to expose and maximize the training we have here, so we want to expose the flight students to what its like to actually be a UH-60 driver and pick up those individuals in the back, as well as have the in-depth planning that takes place. While they won't be experts when they leave here, they'll be exposed to and have an idea when they will be getting into."
Each of the flight students have only had about eight hours of total flight time leading up to this training, so the students are still in the early stages of their training. It's a good way for them to be able to take the things they've learned up to this point and put them together, said Kober.
"Leading up to this event, they've flown pieces of everything -- they've done multi-ship formations, where they've flown in formation, they've done planning for routes where they have to tactically navigate the Blackhawk utilizing the GPS and fly to some of the smaller fields around Fort Rucker. They've done tactical navigation, they've done formation flights, they've done small plans, and this exercise culminates into a large plan that encompasses all of that," he said.
For 1st Lt. Victor Tersigni D Co., 1st Bn., 145th Avn. Regt., and 2nd Lt. Matthew Barringer, D Co., 1st Bn., 145th Avn. Regt., the experience proved invaluable.
"This training was kind of a rush. We got to talk all the fundamentals that we've learned and finally apply it to something that was realistic to what we'll be doing in the Army," said Tersigni.
"It was cool to actually get to do it with real-life Rangers in the back and do it in support of their mission -- that was a unique opportunity," added Barringer. "This training is irreplaceable. You can't simulate that or model that in any other way but by doing it."
Tersigni said that simulator training is great, but there are only so much that the simulators can accomplish. When training in a real-life event, variables shift and change in a way that is unpredictable that simulators can't deliver.
One such unpredictability that the pilots weren't prepared for was the fact that the landing zone wasn't where they though it was going to be, so the student pilots had to look for the signal smoke to figure out where they had to drop off their passengers.
"Everything always works in the simulator and everything stays pretty consistent, but in real life, weather changes and there are so many other variables that you have to compensate for," said Tersigni.
One of the most challenging things for the flight school students weren't the changing variables, but the actual flying, said Barringer.
"At the hour-level that we're flying at, the actual flying together in formation was the hardest part for us," he said. "The formation flying -- we've never done anything like that before -- it's something very unusual from everything we've done before. There are so many other variables to think about, not just what you're doing. When you're flying in formation you have to think about everyone else that's in the formation. Aviate, communicate and navigate now becomes coordinating with everything that's going on."
After the training exercise, the students went into a formal after-action review, which allowed the instructors, as well as the students, to see what they did right, what they did wrong and what can be improved upon.
"For us, as instructors, we do this mission every class, so every time we do it we see something that we can adjust," said Kober. "That way, we can say this worked really well for a particular task, so that we can put it in doctrine and put it on a piece of paper so that every unit will do it that way. Then the next set of students that comes through get a better product and they have a better chance to do a better mission, so the training gets better."
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