Photo By Staff Sgt. Timothy Jackson | Sgt. 1st Class Miguel Camacho, a crew chief with Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 501st...... read more read more
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Canadian and US soldiers ran through the tall grass as the blades of nearby UH-60 Black Hawks spin madly. Soldiers new to the aircraft squat as low to the ground as possible for fear of losing an appendage or worse.
The soldiers are participating in an air assault training mission, which was part of the Saber Guardian Exercise at the Romanian Land Forces Combat Training Center in Cincu, Romania; for most of the ten countries and the 2,800 soldiers involved, there are many first-time experiences. Sgt. 1st Class Miguel Camacho, a Crew Chief and flight platoon sergeant with Company C, 3rd Battalion, 501st Aviation Regiment from Ft. Bliss, Texas has had his share of new experiences.
A crew chief since 1992, more than 4,000 hours of flight time, and a skull-mask reminiscent of Johnny Blaze’s Ghost Rider, Camacho is there to greet the adrenalin-charged soldiers.
“Rarely, anything’s new now,” he said after the Black Hawk landed in the pastoral hills of the Romanian countryside. With the blank expression of his skull mask off, he flashes a toothy smile and his positive attitude is contagious. His job is not only to ensure the safety of passengers, but also the aircraft and its crew. He is the flight steward of a flying roller coaster, with a penchant for thrill.
The comparison to Six Flags is not a joke, but a matter of survivability. For a helicopter to take cover from enemies the pilot has to perform maneuvers called masking and unmasking, which means staying behind terrain features such as trees, hills and dilapidated buildings.
As a part of a pilot or crew chief’s annual evaluation he must know the difference between enemy and friendly vehicles.
“Until you live it, you won’t actually get the experience,” Camacho said. “You can see vehicles on a TV screen or on a PowerPoint slide all you want, and now you’re getting exposed to the vehicles that you see on a slide. [In real life] if it’s not an Abrams it might be a T-80, and it’s coming at you.”
The dynamic environment comes with the need to constantly wear a headset.
“You can hear all four crew members on the aircraft constantly looking for obstacles, clearing passes, and looking for anything that may cause a danger,” Camacho said.
The vigilance is not just for Camacho’s role as crew chief but as a leader of soldiers. Spc. Jonathan Patton, a Black Hawk repairer and crew chief under Camacho’s guidance, performs the preventative maintenance of daily inspection. Lives of passengers, crew, and ground forces hinge on Patton’s ability to complete his task.
“It reinforces my training for the new crew chiefs,” Camacho said.
For Camacho’s career, the globe seems to have travelled underneath his feet as fast as a Black Hawk’s spinning rotor. The aircraft has taken him on multiple deployments to the Middle East and to domestic and foreign training sites. While Romania may just seem like another dot on the map for him, Camacho’s fearlessness when facing new challenges brings the same inspiration to his crew and passengers as the UH-60 Black Hawk in flight.
| Date Taken: | 07.31.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 08.03.2016 09:10 |
| Story ID: | 205915 |
| Location: | CINCU, RO |
| Web Views: | 119 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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