The perfect dust landing

Photo By Maj. Richard Barker | A UH-60 Black Hawk MEDEVAC helicopter with C Company, 1st Battalion, 169th Aviation Regiment, New Mexico National Guard currently attached to the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, performs a dust landing during a training flight on Camp Dwyer, Afghanistan, April 4.  

CAMP DWYER, AFGHANISTAN

05.02.2012

Story by Capt. Richard Barker 

25th Combat Aviation Brigade

CAMP DWYER, Afghanistan – Medical evacuations conducted by U.S. Army Black Hawk crews in Afghanistan, commonly referred to as MEDEVAC, perform to the standard of the golden hour and are considered by many to have the fastest response times on the globe.

The golden hour begins its countdown when a MEDEVAC unit receives a call and ends when the crew delivers wounded personnel to the nearest medical facility. Of the tasks a MEDEVAC crew must perform to meet this standard, one of the most difficult and dangerous is landing and taking-off in the loose, dry sands of Afghanistan.

When a helicopter lands or takes-off in loose sand, the helicopter’s down wash blows loose sand, or dust as many call it due to its fine texture, into the air limiting visibility for the crew of the aircraft. Among the Army helicopter community, these are referred to as dust landings and dust take-offs.

For the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, ensuring new MEDEVAC units in theater are proficient at dust landings is a top priority. For this reason, 25th CAB Standardizations Instructor Pilot Chief Warrant Officer 5 Joseph Roland, recently traveled to Camp Dwyer to conduct dust-landing training for Company C, 1st Battalion, 169th Aviation Regiment, an incoming MEDEVAC unit.

“Dust landings are one of the most dangerous things we have to do during MEDEVAC missions, so we are spending extra time training on that before they assume the mission,” said Roland.
C/1-169 is composed of National Guard units from Maryland, Tennessee and Georgia.

“The unit is a good group, from all walks of life, both young and old, but one thing they have in common is they are all motivated to be here,” said Roland.

As National Guard units often fall under CABs to ensure increased MEDEVAC coverage on the battlefield, some of the C/1-169 Soldiers have worked under the 25th CAB before.

“I served with the 25th CAB in Iraq,” said Sgt. Dezuani Giovanni, C/1-169, Tennessee National Guard currently attached to the 25th CAB. “They have always given us good support and this time the 25th CAB has been very interactive with us from the top down.”

C/1-169, who is now providing MEDEVAC support across Afghanistan’s Regional Command - Southwest, assumed their mission in mid April.

• Date Taken: 05.02.2012
• Date Posted: 05.02.2012 08:38
• Story ID: 87723
• Location: CAMP DWYER, AF
• Hometown: WAHIAWA, HAWAII, US