Photo By Spc. Anna Laurin | Staff Sgt. Richard Shearer, crew chief with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st...... read more read more
SALINA, Kan. - When a disaster occurs and leaders need to know what the area looks like, they are able to call up distinctive help, like the UH-72 Lakota helicopters of the 1st Security and Support Battalion, 376th Aviation Regiment, Nebraska National Guard.
At Vigilant Guard 2014, hosted by the Kansas National Guard, at Crisis City, Salina, Kansas, the teams were able to show off their unique capabilities to Maj. Gen. Michael D. Navrkal, commander of the 35th Infantry Division, Kansas Army National Guard, Aug. 6, 2014.
“As part of the exercise, the 35th Infantry Division is providing the Joint Task Force headquarters,” said Navrkal. “In domestic response, it is always good to have situational understanding of what’s going on out there and these unique aircrafts provide some tremendous capabilities for us within the JTF.”
The large-scale exercise has allowed many opportunities for interactions between different entities, on both the military and civilian side.
“Historically, we train for a war-time mission, but this gives us the opportunity to plan for domestic support to civilian authorities,” said Navrkal. “This gives us the ability to look at our systems and processes and how we would adapt those to working with the civilian responders and others agencies.”
Integrating with other agencies is beneficial on all sides. The crew members of the 1st SS Battalion, 376th Aviation Regiment found the exercise very valuable to their mission.
“The Security and Support Battalion’s role is primarily domestic operations,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Jeff Caniglia, battalion standardization instructor pilot, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st SS Battalion, 376th Aviation Regiment. “Anytime that we can come out and actually do the mission that we were created for, it’s a huge advantage. We do individual training, but when we can do collective training at this level, it’s amazing for us.”
The Lakota helicopters provide a lot of immediate information that can help leaders in a disaster emergency response map out the damage.
“Anytime there are floods, tornadoes, or any time that a joint operation center or a higher command needs real time imagery, we are going to put that aircraft on station overhead as an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platform collecting the live-time imagery and pushing it back for information,” said Caniglia.
He explained how the helicopters uses FLIR thermal heat sensors to view bodies within a rubble pile.
“We have folks on the ground working through the debris and rubble from the destruction, and if we see victims, with the heat sensor, we can guide the ground guys to find the victims,” said Caniglia.
Working closely with a division as well as supporting local first responders keeps the Lakota teams motivated while doing the job they love.
“They have been worked really hard,” said Caniglia. “We are in the field, temperatures have been extremely hot, but the crews’ enthusiasm has been extremely high because they are doing the jobs that we train to do all year round, and now we get to execute those missions.”
| Date Taken: | 08.06.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 08.09.2014 12:36 |
| Story ID: | 138855 |
| Location: | SALINA, KS, US |
| Hometown: | COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, US |
| Hometown: | GRAND ISLAND, NE, US |
| Hometown: | SALINA, KS, US |
| Hometown: | TOPEKA, KS, US |
| Web Views: | 140 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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