Flight School students get additional tactical training

By Russell Sellers, Army Flier StaffFebruary 3, 2011

FORT RUCKER, Ala. -- Soldiers currently waiting to begin training on their specified aircraft had an opportunity to get some "hands-on" tactical training in late January.

In an effort to make downtime Soldiers going through flight school experience more efficient, Tactical Operations officials devised a four-day course to give those students a chance to get more in-depth training.

The training event was about 32 hours long and included time in classrooms learning about various threats to helicopter pilots downrange and then facing those threats during simulation at the end.

"I saw a target of opportunity in the time (students) were waiting from the time they finished a certain part of their training to starting their advanced aircraft training," said CW4 Tom McClellan, Aviation Branch chief tactical operations officer. "I felt it was the perfect time to take advantage of that instead of having them doing casual duties."

McClellan worked with CW4 Shon Thompson, Aviation Branch tactical operations course chief, on coming up with curriculum for the four-day course by borrowing material from the tactical operations course.

"Together we laid out the sequence of events and briefed it to the command group," he said. "It was enthusiastically received, and may be permanently included in Flight School, but this is a test case. There are probably some changes that need to be made to the class, but that's why we're here to try it out.

"We've tied the training into the real-world threats to aircraft and aircrews," said Thompson. "This definitely helps the Soldiers be ahead of the curve when they reach their units and start advanced aircraft training."

Some of the Soldiers who experienced this first training event said they think it's a beneficial addition to their regular training schedule.

"I think it's very valuable," said 2nd Lt. Jason Nichols, B Company, 1st Battalion, 145th Aviation Regiment. "I think this is something all Flight School students should go through."

First Lt. Alexander Humes, B Co., 1st Bn., 145th Avn. Regt., previously completed UH-60 Black Hawk training and is currently in waiting to begin fixed-wing training. For him, the training allowed him to polish his skills and showed him he wanted to spend more time in simulation.

"I was very glad to see the types of threats we might see in the real-world," he said. "Now it's not some kind of vague notion, but something I've seen and dealt with. It's really valuable, especially for those of us who might not have deployed before."