Photo By Scott Sturkol | UH-60 Black Hawks and crews with the Wisconsin Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion,...... read more read more
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Multiple units with Wisconsin’s Army National Guard and Air National Guard combined July 27 to hold a practice session of their airshow event at the Sparta-Fort McCoy Airport at Fort McCoy.
The event, which was a practice for the Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture airshow in Oshkosh, Wis., included Soldiers and Airmen and included field artillery, UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, an F-35A Lightning II, and a KC-135R Stratotanker.
The artillery belonged to the Wisconsin Army National Guard’s 120th Field Artillery. The Black Hawks belonged to the Wisconsin Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 147th Aviation Regiment of Madison and West Bend. The F-35 belonged to the Wisconsin Air National Guard’s 115th Fighter Wing, also in Madison. And the KC-135R belonged to the Wisconsin Air National Guard’s 128th Air Refueling Wing in Milwaukee.
Lt. Col. Dan Allen, commander of the 1st Battalion, 147th Aviation Regiment, said the “dress rehearsal” at the Sparta-Fort McCoy Airport was a complex and coordinated event.
“It began with the F-35 … coming across the airfield conducting what we call suppression of enemy air defenses,” Allen said. “That was followed by insertion, or air assault, of two Black Hawks from the 147th with 120th Field Artillery to fire off their 105 Howitzers followed by four aircraft (with Soldiers) who conducted actions on an objective.
“After that, the 147th had two medevac assets come in, and (they) conducted a live hoist simulating an injured casualty. After that, there was an air refueling pass with the … KC-135 and the F-35.”
Allen added that during the continued action the F-35 also completed multiple passes simulating close air support.
“It was an amazing thing to see all the coordination action sequence and timing that all came together to have all these elements operating in a closed space to truly demonstrate all the Wisconsin National Guard capabilities,” Allen said.
Many of the Wisconsin National Guard personnel at Fort McCoy already training in the 2023 eXportable Combat Training Capability exercise were able to view the practice along with many Fort McCoy personnel.
Wisconsin National Guard troops regularly train at Fort McCoy every year, however this event was possibly one of the more unique training events to have taken place on post, officials said.
Fort McCoy was established in 1909 and its motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System at https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base.
(Article prepared by the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office and the Fort McCoy Multimedia-Visual Information Office.)
| Date Taken: | 08.02.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 08.04.2023 00:41 |
| Story ID: | 450669 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 119 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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