Courtesy Photo | Illinois National Guard Black Hawk helicopter crews practice using Bambi Buckets, a...... read more read more
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By Amy May
Camp Atterbury Crier Staff
CAMP ATTERBURY, Ind., -- Soldiers and civilians at Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center may have been wondering "Where's the fire?" as they watched two Black Hawk helicopters flying above the trees dangling huge bags filled with water.
The bags, called "Bambi Buckets", are 700-gallon collapsible water containers used for fighting wildfires. They may be a familiar sight to anyone who has seen news coverage of the western wildfires, but they don't get much use in Indiana.
To use the system, the helicopter dips down over a lake, fills the bucket and then flies to the fire and releases the water. Army National Guard Soldiers from Illinois and South Dakota spent a breezy, late-April day practicing the fire suppression technique at Puff Lake.
In late May, the helicopter crews will go to Kosovo as part of the Multi-National Task Force (East) peacekeeping mission. More than 1,000 Missouri National Guard Soldiers will make up the bulk of the deployment.
The aviation component of the mission, called Task Force Black Horse, includes approximately 150 people from the 1-106th Aviation of the Illinois National Guard, and C Company 1-189th General Support Aviation Battalion of the South Dakota National Guard.
The task force's duties will include air movement of people and equipment, said Capt. Dennis W. Huffman of the 106th. The 189th is the task force's air medical evacuation unit and its flight crews include emergency medical personnel, as well as medical equipment, on board. The 106th has an air assault mission, so its Soldiers are trained to fly into combat to insert and evacuate troops without landing, although that probably won't be called for in Kosovo, Huffman said.
The personnel include pilots, crew chiefs, weapons specialists, maintenance technicians, refuelers and medics, as well as logistical personnel to dispatch the crews and prioritize missions.
At Camp Atterbury, the Soldiers set up a tactical operations center at Atterbury's airfield that is similar to what they will have in Kosovo.
"During the day, we get air mission requests that come in. Our job here is to track the progress, feed them any changes, ensure safety and coordinate information," Huffman said.
The camp's trainers give the helicopter crews and tactical personnel scenarios to deal with, such as multiple medical calls, changed missions, deliveries requiring drop baskets, VIP movement and disabled aircraft.
"They've thrown everything at us," Huffman said. "We've been very challenged at Camp Atterbury."
And the Soldiers will be ready to help with firefighting duties if needed in Eastern Europe. The Black Hawk crews began learning to use the "Bambi Buckets" at home as part of the Guard's homeland security mission to assist with wildfires in the United States, Huffman said.
Using the buckets is actually a little more complicated than it looks. To an observer, the chopper seems to dip gracefully down, scoop up some water and fly away. Huffman pointed out that the pilot can't actually see the bucket, so he must rely on the crew chief to tell him how far to drop. The water weighs more than 5,000 pounds, so it changes how the helicopter responds when flying.
"They are feeling the aircraft and how it's responding. As a pilot, it's difficult to obtain orientation. We rely on the crew chiefs to keep us oriented," Huffman said.
The flight crew helps the pilot situate the Black Hawk over the fire and uses an electrical release to open the bottom of the bucket and drop the water, which cascades down in about one-half a second. In the exercise, the water was dropped back into Puff Lake.
| Date Taken: | 04.30.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 05.08.2008 16:26 |
| Story ID: | 19238 |
| Location: | CAMP ATTERBURY, US |
| Web Views: | 196 |
| Downloads: | 157 |
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