Courtesy Photo | A civilian search and rescue vehicle loads on board a CH-47F Chinook helicopter...... read more read more
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ROCHESTER, NEW YORK -- Eleven New York Army National Guard Soldiers – six aircrew members and five maintenance Soldiers – moved 224 personnel, 16 vehicles and 65,000 pounds of supplies on board two CH-47F Chinook heavy lift helicopters during a week-long deployment to Florida to assist in the response to Hurricane Ian.
The New Yorkers were part of an aviation task force that included Guard Soldiers from Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee, as well as Florida aviators.
The New York task force, composed of Soldiers from Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 126th Aviation and the 642nd Aviation Maintenance Battalion, deployed for Florida on September 28 at the direction of Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The movement was a response to an Emergency Management Assistance Compact request from Florida as the Hurricane Ian headed towards the state.
The CH-47F Chinooks, based at the Army Aviation Flight Facility in Rochester, can carry 36 people, or over 46,000 pounds of cargo, and fly at 190 miles per hour.
The aircraft took two days to make the journey and arrived at the Fort Myers International airport September 29, less than 30 hours after Hurricane Ian had made landfall the day before, bringing maximum sustained winds of 150 mph to the Florida coast near Fort Myers.
The two New York aircraft moved “a bunch of search and rescue teams,” Florida State troopers, local police and sheriff’s deputies, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation agents and Florida National Guard Soldiers, between September 30 and October 5, according to Capt. Jonathan Peralta, the mission officer in charge.
The New Yorkers and the aircraft from the other states, focused on moving people, equipment and supplies to Sanibel Island, which is off the Florida coast of Fort Myers, Peralta said.
When the storm hit on September 28, sections of the three-mile-long causeway that links the island to the mainland were destroyed. The Army Guard aircraft were used to bring in people and critical equipment quickly, he said.
The CH-47 crews moved Ford F-150 pickup trucks and Explorer SUVs, as well as gator type vehicles, military Humvees and skid steer work vehicles, Peralta said.
The Ford Explorer and F-150s were just backed up into the aircraft, as were the gators.
The skid steers, small single man work vehicles, were loaded into shipping containers, known as a conex. These were then carried across the channel to the island slung underneath the CH-47s.
The Humvees were also carried as a sling load, Peralta said. The New York helicopters carried two Humvees, the entire aviation task force moved 10, he said.
Carrying the sling-loads was particularly tricky because the pilots had to fly a specific route, so that if the load had to be dropped for safety reasons, it wouldn’t hit a house, Peralta explained.
“There’s going to be follow up if that happens,” Peralta said.
Carrying heavy loads like a truck or armored Humvee is challenging for pilots, he said.
“We have to be concerned about power management and not over-torquing the engines,” Peralta said.
The helicopters used the general aviation fixed base operator location at the airport as their home base. But each landing zone on the island varied, and there was always a concern about debris being kicked up, Peralta said.
Other supplies moved by the two New York helicopters included two pallets of water, cell phone communications equipment and 65,000 pounds of cargo.
The Soldiers generally worked 12-hour days from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., although occasionally those days got extended, Peralta said.
The Florida National Guard ensured the Soldiers were billeted as comfortably as possible and well fed, he said, and as the week went on, they moved out of an aircraft hangar and into local hotels.
The maintenance personnel faced a special challenge when one of the Chinooks hit 120 of flying time which required major maintenance checks, Peralta said.
This level of maintenance is normally conducted inside a hangar and takes about a day, he explained. In this case the maintenance team had to work outside in the heat, so they rotated people into an air-conditioned building to give them a break, he said.
The maintainers also had to close whatever they were working on whenever an aircraft flew by, which slowed things down as well, Peralta said.
But the work was done with little lost mission time, Peralta said.
The New York Army and Air National Guard deployed personnel and aircraft to assist during Florida in October 2018 when Hurricane Michael hit the state.
In that case, New York deployed two CH-47s, two UH-60 Black Hawks and 25 Soldiers.
Peralta was part of that 2018 mission and he said that there was much more for the aviators to do during this deployment.
In 2018, the storm had hit inland, Peralta said. This storm hit the coast harder and did more damage on the islands.
“The way the damage had occurred made for more aviation requirements this time around,” Peralta said.
In September 2017, following Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the New York Army National Guard deployed 60 Soldiers and four UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters to Puerto Rico on board three C-17s flown by the 105th Airlift Wing, based in Newburgh.
The New York Air National Guard also deployed 130 Airmen, two HC-130 Combat King search and rescue aircraft and three HH-60 Pave Hawk rescue helicopters to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Island following the storms.
The team based out of San Juan, Puerto Rico and conducted missions in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The New York Air National Guard crews assisted in missions that rescued 1,582 Americans from the joint French and Dutch-administered island of St. Maarten.
Also in 2017, the New York Air National Guard deployed three HH-60 Pave Hawk rescue helicopters and crews to Texas in August following Hurricanes Irma and Maria. The New York Airmen rescued 546 people using the helicopters and four inflatable Zodiac boats.
New York Army and Air National Guard personnel and helicopters also responded following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
| Date Taken: | 10.11.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 10.11.2022 12:29 |
| Story ID: | 431073 |
| Location: | ROCHESTER , NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 82 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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