FORT SILL, Okla., -- U.S. Army Sgt. Paul Crane, 30, of St. Johnsbury, Vt. is preparing for a year-long deployment to Southwest Asia and the Middle East with the Vermont National Guard’s Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 126th Aviation Regiment (Air Ambulance).
Crane is training to become a crew chief on an Ambulatory UH-60M Black hawk helicopter, a highly technical role responsible for all that occurs in the back of the aircraft.
He is making this transition to crew chief after serving as a structural air frames mechanic with the Marine Corps for nine years, including a deployment to Helmund Provence, Afghanistan in 2014. This experience directly translated to his civilian career as a sheet metal technician. “I did a lot of sheet metal repair when I was with the Marines so all that knowledge and experience transferred over for me and they hired me on the spot,” said Crane.
After leaving the Marine Corps he joined the Vermont National Guard with a specific desire to fly. “I have my civilian pilot’s license, so that what I enjoy doing a lot,” reported Crane.
While Crane misses his wife and two children the training here has provided unique opportunities in preparation for the deployment. “I got to go out and shoot M240’s (machine gun) for gunnery training, something we don’t get to do at all in Vermont. We got to blast a lot of rounds out so that was fun training.”
Ultimately, Crane is looking forward to “getting to do what I joined for, so that’s pretty cool.”