Pennsylvania Native Makes Career Change, Takes Flight

CORAOPOLIS, PA, UNITED STATES

05.14.2017

Courtesy Story

354th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

CORAOPOLIS, Pa. (May 14, 2017) - On a cloudy, Saturday morning in
western Pennsylvania, a small group of soldiers walk across the tarmac of
the Air Force 911th Airlift Wing. A UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter waits
for them on the other side of the runway. The soldiers stand out among a crowd of airmen as they prepare for the 2017 Wings Over Pittsburgh Air
Show.
A blonde soldier, sunglasses on, takes position near the aircraft,
which she piloted to the reserve base a few days earlier. She will spend
the rest of the weekend discussing this helicopter with curious air show
spectators. She stands quietly, ready to answer their questions with
knowledge only extensive training and experience can cultivate.
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Megan Yanacek, a native of Cochranton,
Pennsylvania, transitioned from combat medic to pilot in the Pennsylvania
National Guard to fulfill a lifelong desire to fly.
Yanacek originally considered joining the Air Force, she said, but
changed course when a high school friend informed her that the National
Guard would pay for her to attend college. She attended Edinboro
University of Pennsylvania and graduated with a degree in psychology.
“I always knew I wanted to be military,” Yanacek said. “I always
wanted to fly.”
Despite her desire to fly, Yanacek enlisted in the Pennsylvania
National Guard as a combat medic and served in that capacity for eight
years.
While on deployment to Iraq with the historical 56th Stryker Brigade
Combat Team she frequently took notice of pilots landing at the troop
medical clinic, she said. Upon her return to the U.S. she submitted an
application packet to attend flight school.
Yanacek took a flight aptitude test and attended several interviews.
After completing the application process she attended flight school in
2010. She graduated as a warrant officer, certified to pilot UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, two years later.
“We have the coolest missions in aviation,” said Yanacek.
Black Hawk missions include rescue, utility, medical evacuation,
command and control, and reconnaissance. When operating out of the
Pennsylvania National Guard Armory, located in Johnstown,
Pennsylvania, Yanacek and her crew often assist the Pennsylvania
Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team in swift water rescues, hiker rescues and
flood relief missions.
A four-person crew, consisting of a pilot, two crew chiefs and a medic,
typically man the helicopter.
Sergeant Maria Serenko, a crew chief, flies with Yanacek several
times a month.
“I love my job, said Serenko. “A rotational schedule determines the
crew for each flight, but we can pretty much go up anytime we want.”
Both Soldiers currently serve in full-time Active Guard Reserve
positions. Yanacek organizes training schedules in her position as “pilot
in command.”
“I get to fly daily and coordinate training and flying for
servicemembers who need flight hours,” said Yanacek
Typical training objectives for the Pennsylvania National Guard include hoist and sling load training, water bucket drops, map of the earth
flying and landing, Yanacek said. She also recently qualified to certify
Black Hawk and Apache crews on tactical operations training.
Black Hawk helicopters do not have weapon systems of their own, but
may be equipped with machine guns when operating in hostile
environments. AH-64 Apache helicopters often accompany the Black
Hawks on missions into combat zones, Yanacek said. With her new
qualification Yanacek conducts training scenarios practicing threat
evasion and effective use of survivability equipment with Black Hawk and
Apache pilots.
Most recently Yanacek returned from a deployment in August 2016,
after having spent nine months in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan. A
highlight of the deployment, she said, was training to land and evacuate
servicemembers off ships at sea. She and her crew trained on ships on the Persian Gulf. In addition, they conducted over 13 medical evacuation
missions while overseas.
Spending a weekend on the tarmac of an Air Force Reserve base,
discussing Black Hawks with civilians, is a far cry from flying over the
Persian Gulf, but it’s all part of the job for Yanacek.
“Sometimes during training I do miss being the medic,” said Yanacek.
“But I have no regrets.”

• Date Taken: 05.14.2017
• Date Posted: 05.17.2017 07:47
• Story ID: 234114
• Location: CORAOPOLIS, PA, US