Photo By Sgt. Maj. Nathan Hoskins | Sebastian, Fla., native Spc. Thomas Quinn, a Division Rapid Response Force Soldier for...... read more read more
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By Spc. Nathan Hoskins
1st ACB, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs
CAMP TAJI, Iraq – Many aircraft cross the skies over Baghdad and the Division Rapid Reaction Force is trained to rapidly move out in case of an emergency landing or crash.
"Though (the DRRF) are primarily employed for downed aircraft, they have a variety of other missions. They react to incidents within the (Multi-National Division – Baghdad's area of operations) in which other troops cannot respond in less than an hour," said Lake Arrowhead, Calif., native Capt. Jay King, an AH-64D Apache helicopter pilot and commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division.
But the Soldiers who make up the DRRF don't come to Iraq with the know-how concerning these situations, they get the training when they link up with the 1st ACB, he said.
Every time a new group of Soldiers comes in to take over the mission as the DRRF, King has to ensure that they get the proper training that will enable them to best do their new job, he said.
The training is very thorough. The Soldiers of Battery C, 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, are learning the ins and outs of each helicopter in 1st ACB's inventory, said Rigby, Iowa, native 1st Lt. Burke Manwaring, a platoon leader for 1-37th.
"They are familiarized with all of the Air Cavalry Brigade's assets, including the AH-64 (Apache), the UH-60 (Black Hawk) and the CH-47 (Chinook)," said King.
The familiarization portion includes knowing the best way to extract pilots from the different aircrafts and how to shut each of those aircrafts down, said Manwaring.
The DRRF team also learns how to use the Apache attack helicopter to their benefit during their training, King said.
"They are versed on the employment of attack aviation, to include academics and a practical exercise," he said.
"(The Apache) is an amazing aircraft; it's a good asset. I'm glad their on our team," said Manwaring.
Because in most instances the Soldiers will be flown into the crash site on UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, the Soldiers of 1-37th go through what is called cold load training, King said.
Cold load, or static load, training is practicing air assaults – getting on and off a Black Hawk or Chinook as quickly as possible – while the aircraft is sitting on the flight line not running, he said.
The air assault is one of the major skills taught to the Soldiers who will be a DRRF member, said King.
"They're supposed to come trained in all infantry tactics; we train them in the air assault tactics. The things that are unique to air assault operations (are) what we train them in," he said.
"This is our second time doing static load training so we've got it down pretty well; we're just getting the speed and efficiency up," Manwaring said. "The faster we are at this, the quicker (the pilots) can get off the objective and we can do our business."
After getting familiarized with each aircraft and then becoming proficient in getting in and out of a Black Hawk, the Soldiers had one last training exercise in which they put all of their new training to use – the Mission Readiness Exercise, said King.
"(The Soldiers) have a mission readiness exercise where they actually air assault on to an objective," said King.
"Very few of us have actually been on a combat air assault mission," said Manwaring. "We've been doing raids and things like that for a year. Now, instead of jumping out of a humvee we're jumping out of a helicopter."
During this part of the Mission Readiness Exercise the DRRF responded to a simulated downed aircraft, said King.
During the Mission Readiness Exercise, Soldiers of 1-37th kept in constant communication with the Apache helicopter crews, he said.
While the ground Soldiers were working their mission, they had Apaches circling overhead, ready to help them out.
"Attack aviation is critical support to the DRRF mission," said King.
"Talking to the (Apache) pilots on the radio is the easiest part. They just want to hear the layman's perspective of what's going on ... that's been refreshing," said Manwaring.
After air assaulting in to the general area of the downed aircraft, the DRRF quickly set up a perimeter and focused on extracting the pilots to provide medical care.
Once the Mission Readiness Exercise was complete, the Soldiers critiqued themselves to determine where they needed improvement. This enabled them to perform better in the next training mission and for a real event, said King.
The DRRF Soldiers also had to do a training exercise in the black of night to ensure they were able to air assault wearing their night vision equipment, he said.
Once this platoon finishes up their brief rotation through the DRRF, another platoon will replace them and go through similar training, said King.
"We don't just get infantrymen, we also get artillerymen and mortarmen ... so we're teaching a large demographic, across the Army, to be air assault capable," he said.
Since the 1st Air Cavalry Brigade has been deployed this rotation, they have trained seven different platoons, he said.
| Date Taken: | 06.05.2007 |
| Date Posted: | 06.05.2007 09:39 |
| Story ID: | 10674 |
| Location: | TAJI, IQ |
| Web Views: | 470 |
| Downloads: | 403 |
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