Photo By Brian Barbour | Detachment 1, C Company, 5-159th Air Ambulance out of Phoenix, hoists two members of...... read more read more
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PHOENIX – Exercise Angel Thunder 2014 teamed guard aviators with interagency, joint and multinational partners for the world's largest personnel recovery exercise here, May 4-17.
The members of the 2/285th Air Assault Helicopter Battalion are part of the 2,000-member joint combat search and rescue exercise designed to test the skills of personnel recovery experts through a variety of scenarios that simulate a deployed setting covering Arizona, California and New Mexico.
“Larger exercises with multiple partners tend to be more confusing and complex, which equates to fantastic training,” said Army Capt. Caleb Grandy, a UH-60 Black Hawk pilot who also serves as a company commander in the 2/285th.
Arizona’s UH-60 battalion is one of 200 organizations participating in Angel Thunder.
“We flew missions with Army, Air Force, Marines and Navy on the same aircraft,” he said. “This is not something we typically get to do.”
During the exercise, Arizona’s Citizen-Soldiers played key roles in security cooperation, interagency operations, and support to civil authorities focused on search and rescue following a simulated catastrophic incident.
“Realistic personnel recovery is difficult to simulate, so having the SERE [survive, evade, resist, escape] professionals and equipment here helped us train within a large framework,” Grandy said. “Angel Thunder challenges the group dynamic.”
The 2/285th served multiple other roles during Angel Thunder including “white cell” support which positions role players in remote areas so others can practice rescuing them. White cell missions add realism to the training according to participants.
At one event, a Black Hawk crew took off on an air assault mission with Marines but soon changed focus to rescue service members from a simulated “fallen angel” – a helicopter shot down by a fictional enemy. Solders, Marines and combat cameramen walked six miles to a pickup spot before returning to a nearby military base.
Army Maj. Joseph Aldrich, a veteran of several Angel Thunder exercises, said this year’s event involved the 2/285th more than ever. Originally scheduled for 19 missions, the unit flew nearly two dozen.
“You can see Soldiers getting shaken up during the training and this is just training. We do this so they are prepared for real-time scenarios,” Aldrich said.
When not flying into simulated combat, the Guard members flew dignitaries such as elected leaders and partner-nation chiefs of staff to get a better look at operations. They also transported local, national and international media covering the exercise.
“We treat everyone the same; we show respect to elected officials, but a ride on a Black Hawk is the same for a private as it is for a Congressman,” Grandy said.
The culmination of Angel Thunder for the 2/285th AHB is a three-day exercise involving direct action air assault with Special Forces from Fort Bragg and the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Foreign Adviser Security Team.
| Date Taken: | 05.14.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 05.14.2014 22:24 |
| Story ID: | 129806 |
| Location: | PHOENIX, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 762 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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