Photo By Kevin Clark | An aircrew with the 1st Battalion, 147th Aviation Regiment of the Wisconsin National...... read more read more
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On July 27, 2023, Soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 147th Aviation Regiment (1-147) of the Wisconsin National Guard, through use of a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, completed a live-hoist event at Sparta-Fort McCoy Airport at Fort McCoy as part of a bigger event for practicing for an airshow.
Lt. Col. Dan Allen, commander of the 1-147, said the “dress rehearsal” at the Sparta-Fort McCoy Airport was a “complex and coordinated event” and the live-hoist portion of the practice “conducted a live hoist simulating an injured casualty.” All of it was for the Experimental Aircraft Association’s (EAA) AirVenture airshow in Oshkosh, Wis., and not only included his Soldiers and but also Airmen and included field artillery, an F-35A Lightning II, and a KC-135R Stratotanker, as well.
In June 2022, multiple crews with the 1-147 conducted live-hoist training at Fort McCoy’s Big Sandy Lake. Lt. Col. Donald Graham, who in 2022 helped coordinated the training, said in a previous news story the training included hoisting up simulated victims treading water with a basket into the helicopter. The practice was repeated many times over to give operators as much practice as possible. He also described why having the capability for the Wisconsin National Guard is important.
“Live-hoist (operation) is a critical skill for our medical-evacuation aircraft,” Graham said. “The size, shape, slope of terrain in rescue scenarios can often prevent an aircraft from landing safely. The hoist allows our crews to lower a medic in restrictive landing areas to provide immediate medical care, then safely extract injured persons for transport. It’s a highly technical task that crews must train on regularly to remain proficient.”
Graham also said during the 2022 training that it’s critical for the crews to be prepared because the unit has supported many real-world rescue situations using the live-hoist capabilities on their UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.
“Wisconsin Army National Guard aircrews have conducted three live-hoist rescue missions of injured or stranded individuals in recent years,” Graham said. “Two were off steep, rocky slopes and one over a marsh under night-vision goggle conditions.”
Graham also mentioned in 2022 that the training capability Fort McCoy offers at Big Sandy Lake is significant for the unit to be able to do the training.
“The proximity of the Sparta/McCoy Airport to Big Sandy Lake allows us to use multiple aircraft and provide training to several crews in a short time period while also offering a unique experience for Soldiers from other units training on post,” Graham said.
As far as featuring the live-hoist capability with the Black Hawks as part of the 2023 EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, it appears that went very well, too, according to an Aug. 3 Facebook post by the Wisconsin National Guard at https://www.facebook.com/WisconsinGuard.
“Last Friday, our Wisconsin Air and Army National Guard performed a RARE capability demonstration together at EAA — The Spirit of Aviation,” the post states. “One of our new F-35 Lightning IIs, (eight) UH-60 Black Hawks, and a KC-135 Stratotanker dominated the airspace while M119 howitzer operators were dropped onto the flightline, and infantry Soldiers of the 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team were also dropped onto the flightline where they demonstrated an assault. Meanwhile, two Black Hawks performed a hoist lift for a litter patient and a dynamic hoist for an ambulatory patient. During all of this, (two) howitzers were firing blanks from on the ground and pyrotechnics were going off in the distance! An absolutely outstanding display of just a small but crucial portion of what our citizen Soldiers and Airmen have the ability to provide to not only our state if needed, but to anywhere across the globe.”
Learn more about the Wisconsin National Guard by visiting https://ng.wi.gov.
Fort McCoy’s 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.
| Date Taken: | 08.16.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 08.16.2023 14:28 |
| Story ID: | 451475 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 353 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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