CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo - One of Kosovo Forces most important capabilities is being able to move KFOR soldiers by air to quickly respond to any threat to a safe and secure environment or freedom of movement throughout Kosovo.
The responsibility of ensuring Multinational Battle Group-East's helicopters remain operational to carry out this mission falls on Detachment 2, Company B, 638th Aviation Support Battalion.
On Aug. 21, the unit was put to the test when a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter had to make a precautionary landing at Camp Prizren due to an engine fault light. To get the aircraft back in the air, the company turned to the downed aircraft recovery team.
U.S. Army Master Sgt. Derrick Kuhns, the Detachment 2, Company B, 638th ASB Production Control and DART noncommissioned officer in charge, said the DART provides a mobile maintenance capability that enables disabled aviation assets a path to return to service.
"[The DART's] mission is to recover aircraft and put them into a flyable state to recover it back to its home station," said Kuhns, an Indiana National Guardsman and a native of Carmel, Ind.
Kuhns said the DART is not made up of specific soldiers, rather the team's personnel depend on each individual incident. The situation will determine which soldiers, tools and repair parts they will need. Other factors such as the security of the location the aircraft is in will also impact the DART's mission.
In Prizren, it was quickly determined that the helicopter's engine was going to have to be replaced. Though the aircraft was on a secure base, the DART still had to act quickly to get the chopper back in service.
"The commander has to have all his assets available across the battlefield," said Kuhns. "So it is our responsibility to quickly assess and recover that aircraft so it's back in the fight."
For U.S. Army Spc. Justin Sciscoe, an engine mechanic with Detachment 2, Company B, 638th ASB, one of the most challenging tasks for the DART was determining all of the lubricants, parts, and tools they would have to bring with them to Prizren to replace the engine.
"There is a lot more preparation doing [DART] than opposed to working here [Camp Bondsteel] changing an engine," said Sciscoe, an Indiana National Guard soldier from Martinsville, Ind. "We have everything we need [at Camp Bondsteel] where it is easy if you forget something to send someone to go grab it, but for [DART] we had to get everything we might possibly need and make sure we had everything ready to go. It was a little more of a challenge."
The team packed all the required repair parts and tools they thought they would need for the mission and left for Camp Prizren, where upon arrival they hit the ground running.
"We jumped right into it," said U.S. Army Spc. Nathan Thompson, a Harmony, Ind., native and engine mechanic with Detachment 2, Company B, 638th ASB. "Everybody got in and got their hands dirty as soon as we got there and we had the engine out within 15-20 minutes."
Another challenge the DART faced was not having their lift assets with them to take out the old engine and put the new one in. For help Kuhns coordinated with the German army contingent stationed at Camp Prizren, who were able to provide a crane, forklift and personnel to operate the equipment.
"Without them we couldn't have gotten the job done," said Kuhns.
Sciscoe added that the German soldiers were willing to help out wherever they could even though they didn't have any experience working on Black Hawks.
"They jumped up on the aircraft with us and helped wherever they needed to," said Sciscoe. "They were ready to get their hands dirty."
Despite all of the challenges, the DART was able to replace the helicopter's engine and perform all of the necessary safety checks and tests within 48 hours of being notified of the precautionary landing, enabling the helicopter to fly safely back to Camp Bondsteel and return to service.
This outstanding achievement was not lost on U.S. Army Capt. Stephen Kempf, the commander for Detachment 2, Company B, 638th ASB from Carmel, Ind.
"The thing I'm most impressed about is these guys having very little experience and very little background in engine changes were able to take all the parts, all the tools, all the little support things you wouldn't think about because of the convenience of your home base or home station," said Kempf. "These guys took everything they needed and we didn't have to call for a second parts run or get additional support to change an engine, which is quite a feat."
Perhaps just as important as getting the helicopter back in service is the confidence it gave the young soldiers in being able to respond to future DART missions.
"It was a stressful situation," said Sciscoe, "but having done it once now I think I feel a lot more comfortable doing it."
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