Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Shane Hamann | Warrant Officer Joseph Muse, an HH-60 Black Hawk pilot assigned to Company C, 3rd...... read more read more
AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq - The 3rd General Support Aviation Battalion, 126th Aviation Regiment (3-126 GSAB), headquartered in the Massachusetts Army National Guard, is deployed to support the Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve, U.S. and partner nation effort to eliminate ISIS in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. The 3-126 GSAB is one of three battalions of the 185th Aviation Brigade, headquartered in the Mississippi Army National Guard.
The 3-126 GSAB is comprised of Army National Guard units from Massachusetts, Maryland, Vermont, New York, and Connecticut, conducting medium-lift, heavy-lift, air ambulance, air traffic, precision radar support, aviation maintenance, fuel, armament, and ground vehicle support operations in multiple locations throughout the combined-joint operations area (CJOA).
“The mission of the GSAB is to provide brigade and theater-level commanders operational reach by providing different aviation capabilities,” said Lt. Col. Jim Paulette, the 3-126 GSAB commander. “Within the battalion, our main efforts are our flight companies, which provide medical evacuation, heavy-lift, and medium-lift capabilities.”
“Equally important are the support companies which provide administrative, operational, logistical, aviation and ground vehicle maintenance, fuel, armament, and air traffic services,” said Paulette. “Every company within the GSAB contributes to the overall success of the battalion. Without them, we cannot fly, fix, fuel, or control aircraft.”
Combining five states to form a cohesive team ready to deploy to support major operations requires detailed planning and training. Being proficient in their standard Mission Essential Tasks (METs) began during pre-mobilization and culminated at Fort Cavazos (formerly Fort Hood), Texas, during post-mobilization. Each company was responsible for arriving at Fort Cavazos assessed as trained on their METs.
“The battalion as a whole had to ensure that the aviation war-fighting tasks were trained,” said Paulette. “Added to the already daunting task of training the aviation companies was a lack of experienced aviators and maintainers across the battalion. Experience only comes with time and repetition, which were hard to come by in the limited time leading up to deployment.”
Arriving at Fort Cavazos in February, where the weather is moderately chilly and breezy, ranging between 41 and 65 degrees, presented different challenges in preparing the battalion for operating in southwest Asia.
“Being able to train in high altitudes, in hot conditions, with heavy loads in a hostile environment while it is dark and dusty is near impossible to simulate at [Fort Hood],” said Paulette. “Not until you get into theater will a crew understand how these are all tied together. Risk mitigation becomes extremely important as we balance crew experience against these combat imperatives. Couple this with our lack of experience, I would say that our time deployed is equally important to our pre-deployment training.”
After training together for months, the unit deployed to the CENTCOM area of operations and found themselves dispersed throughout the entire theater, adapting to unforeseen circumstances and expectation changes.
“Our soldiers have adapted exceptionally well to changes in mission, specific location requirements, difficult supply channels, and many more variables,” said Paulette. “Problem-solving immediately kicked in to meet the mission requirement, including cross-leveling personnel, equipment, and aircraft. Failure to accomplish the mission was never an option.”
To date, halfway through their deployment, preparation and flexibility are evident in the data. The battalion has conducted over 490 missions, logging over 2,295 flight hours, 32,100 maintenance hours, 295,000 gallons of fuel pumped, moving over 3,500 passengers and 820,000 pounds of cargo throughout the CJOA.
With such a high operation tempo it's hard to imagine Soldiers having free time. Still, the command places high importance on well-being and ensures resources are available, downtime is scheduled, and companies rotate Soldiers to locations where comforts are more accessible.
“We ensure Soldiers have access to resources to be successful,” said Paulette. “Beginning with the battalion Chaplain, Soldiers have access to mental health resources and counseling. We move resources throughout the CJOA as needed to meet Soldiers’ needs. Equally important, [the command team] circulates to check in with Soldiers and identify issues early. Being dispersed makes it challenging to visit every location regularly. However, we check in bi-weekly with the officers in charge.”
“Necessities and time off are just as important,” said Paulette. “Generally, every Soldier has at least one day off per week to rest and recuperate. This is their time to relax and pursue what they enjoy. We recognize some locations are more austere than others and account for this by rotating forces to provide varied experiences.”
More than halfway through their deployment, the GSAB Soldiers are preparing to hand over their workspaces to their replacements. As with every rotating unit, they hope to leave their positions having passed on knowledge, lessons learned, and best practices that were developed through hard work and personal pride in their duties that set conditions for the future of Army aviation to be safe and successful, said Paulette.
| Date Taken: | 10.14.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 10.14.2023 05:09 |
| Story ID: | 455789 |
| Location: | AL ASAD AIR BASE, IQ |
| Web Views: | 742 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, The Flights Behind the Fight; Massachusetts Army National Guard supports USCENTCOM operations, by SFC Shane Hamann, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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