Photo By Staff Sgt. Alyssa Lisenbe | Delaware Army National Guard Chief Warrant Officer 4 Elwood Gilger, the senior...... read more read more
“Time flies,” said Delaware Army National Guard Chief Warrant Officer 4 Elwood Gilger, the senior instructor pilot for the MEDEVAC Unit with Charlie Company 126th Aviation Company. “It’s always been about flying. I find that I am most relaxed when I am in the aircraft, and I am focused on the task at hand. The world kind of disappears and all your problems disappear.”
In 2025, Gilger celebrated achieving 6,000 total flight hours after 31 years of flying and 34 total years of service.
When Gilger started flying in 1994, the Delaware Army National Guard flew the Bell UH-1 Iroquois Helicopter which was nicknamed the ‘Huey,’ first introduced in 1960.
Gilger would see two modernizations of U.S. Army helicopters including the Delaware Army National Guard’s switch to the U-60 Black Hawk in 2000 and more recently the switch to the UH-72A Lokota in 2024.
Along with being an instructor pilot for the Delaware Army National Guard, he also instructs at Delaware Horizon Helicopters. Gilger has also flown with Horizon since 2004 and was able to get his son certified to fly before he graduated high school. In addition, he was a New Castle County Police Officer.
“The Army side of it and civilian side are two different things but the end result correlates to the same thing,” said Gelger. “The Army side we focus on mission essential tasks such as external loads with the hoists, landing in pinnacle areas and getting people off of a moving vessel.”
In the MEDEVAC unit, Gilger is used to training mission tasks like hoisting external loads, landing on pinnacle areas and setting up to get people off of moving vessels.
“Take every opportunity you can and keep moving forward,” said Gilger. “I don’t think I would change anything about my life. I would not have been able to do this without the U.S. Army.”
| Date Taken: | 04.06.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.06.2025 22:55 |
| Story ID: | 494691 |
| Location: | WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, US |
| Hometown: | NEWARK, DELAWARE, US |
| Web Views: | 209 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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