Photo By Sgt. Spencer Case | Sgt. John Williams, a crew chief for Charlie Co., 3rd Battalion 126th Aviation...... read more read more
TALLIL, Iraq " A National Guard air evacuation unit based out of Vermont and Massachusetts has just begun its tour of Iraq as one of the first to participate in a new form of battalion-level organization for Black Hawk helicopter units.
Company C, 3rd Battalion, 126th Aviation Regiment, which shares its assets at home between Burlington, Vt., and Westfield, Mass., arrived in country Dec. 4 for a deployment they expect will be a year long.
"Everybody, company-wide, is excited about being here but also nervous," said Staff Sgt. Richard Maye, a platoon sergeant for Co. C of 3/126th.
True to form, the company is currently spread out between Camp Echo, near Diwaniyah, Iraq and Logistical Support Area Adder, in Tallil, Iraq, to cover a strip of land that stretches as far north as Baghdad and touches the Kuwaiti border in the south.
"Our mission is to evacuate wounded Soldiers and, in some cases, civilians from the point of injury to the next level of care," said Maj. Roger Drury, the commander of Co. C of 3/126th. Drury added that the company also transports patients from hospital to hospital and delivers medical supplies upon request.
The deployment was hardly unexpected to the Soldiers in the unit because of the high demand for medical evacuation units throughout the Army.
"I'm actually surprised I wasn't deployed earlier. I've been waiting for the past two years," said Sgt. Thijs Devries, a ground mechanic from Amherst, Mass., who works mainly on 'show stoppers," or things that keep the helicopters from flying.
About two thirds of the unit's Soldiers have already had a taste of deployment life in Bosnia, supporting Stabilization Force 13 and 14. The overlapping tours lasted from November 2002 to September 2003 and from June 2003 to April 2004, respectively.
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Nora Adams, a pilot and tactical operations officer, said that the deployment to Bosnia helped prepare the unit for their current mission.
"I think we just gained a good background, a good solid base of what our mission is and also a good understanding of what a deployment is like " what it's like to be away from home, " said Adams, who deployed to Bosnia for SFOR 13.
Unlike the deployment to Bosnia, Co. C came into Iraq operating under 7th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment in a new system of battalion-level organization. The new system downsizes company-level headquarters and maintenance platoons in favor of centralized battalion-level control and common maintenance assets with other companies. Drury said it was too early in the tour to offer an assessment of the system, but said he thought it would help streamline the battalion.
"I personally think it can work, and work quite well," Drury said.
For now, Drury and the rest of the unit is looking forward to what the next year will bring.
"Everybody here is really motivated to do the mission," Drury said. "We certainly hope it will be a boring tour, but if somebody gets hurt, we're going to bring them the next level of care so that they can go home."
| Date Taken: | 12.22.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 12.22.2005 08:25 |
| Story ID: | 4168 |
| Location: | TALLIL AIR BASE, IQ |
| Web Views: | 211 |
| Downloads: | 28 |
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