Photo By Scott Sturkol | A CH-47 Chinook and crew with the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment of New...... read more read more
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Students and staff with the 89B Ammunition Supply Course conducted sling-load training with a CH-47 Chinook crew at Sparta-Fort McCoy Airport on Sept. 26 at Fort McCoy, Wis.
The Ammunition Supply Course (ASC), taught by Regional Training Site-Maintenance staff with the 94th Training Division at Fort McCoy, is a four-week course that provides training for Soldiers who are reclassifying to the 89B military occupational specialty, said course manager Staff Sgt. Christopher Nieves. The sling-load training is one of the last major training events during the course.
According to the Army, a sling load is used to transport munitions to remote locations or to expedite shipments in hostile locations.
By Army definition, ammunition supply specialists are “Soldiers responsible for the management of ordnance to include ammunition and explosives.”
Soldiers who are 89B-qualified are tasked with receiving, storing, and issuing conventional ammunition, guided missiles, large rockets, explosives, and other ammunition and explosive-related items. During the two phases of the course, the students learn all of the entry-level basics about the course, Huth said.
The sling-load training is one of the last major training events during ASC, Nieves said.
“We teach all of our students here how to perform sling-load operations,” Nieves said. “We’ll go over the basics, including about some of the types of aircraft that the Army utilizes to perform this operation, the different types of operations where its needed, and the different equipment that we use to do sling loads.
“We also teach them hand signals to use during sling loads because obviously, if you can’t communicate … it’s not gonna happen,” Nieves said.
Nieves added that learning about sling loads, especially when attaching them to something like a CH-47, is critical knowledge to have.
“You might find yourself in that moment where you will need to rig that load, and do this,” Nieves said. “You might encounter yourself in that scenario when you need to do this, and you might only do it once in your career. You might not do it at all, but you need to know at least do it once, and here they get that chance.”
Sling loads are used to transport munitions to remote locations or to expedite shipments in hostile locations, Army sources show.
Being able to accomplish this is a critical task for the students as they will be responsible for this task in the future; along with this is all the associated paperwork and shipping documents, Nieves said.
Some of the components to complete a sling load include proper weighing of the load to ensure the proper aircraft is used, equipment serviceability checks, rigging to the proper standards, completion of the hookup to the helicopter, and proper use of hand and arm signals.
The CH-47 aircrew who supported the training was with the Army Reserve’s 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment of New Century, Kansas. Crews from this unit have regularly supported this training in the past.
The CH-47 is the Army's only heavy-lift cargo helicopter supporting critical combat and non-combat operations, according to the Army fact sheet on the helicopter. The CH-47 has an empty weight of 24,578 pounds and a maximum gross weight of 50,000 pounds. The helicopter also can lift intra-theater payloads up to 16,000 pounds in high/hot environments.
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 Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: | 10.08.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.08.2024 15:26 |
| Story ID: | 482764 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 642 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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