Soldiers from 603rd Aviation Support Battalion, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division loaded two UH-60 Blackhawks and one CH-47 Chinook on C-17s Globemaster Oct. 16 at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga.
Marne Air Soldiers get ready to assume the Army’s Defense Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive Response Force (DCRF) mission November 1.
“We are engaged in Blackhawk and Chinook load out on two C-17s as part of our emergency deployment readiness exercise (EDRE),” said Sgt. 1st Class Josue Perez-Perez, a platoon sergeant for Company B, 603rd Aviation Support Battalion. “This training prepares us for any mission to include the Defense Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive Response Force.”
Perez trained about 39 Soldiers in the emergency deployment readiness exercise and expressed how the Soldiers felt about the training.
“They actually loved it, for some Soldiers it was their first time on a military airplane as they took off with the aircraft which they loaded on the C-17s themselves,” said Perez. “For them it felt like they were doing a mission in real time.”
Spc. Austin Rutherford, a CH-47 Chinook mechanic for Company B, 603rd Aviation Support Battalion, has been in his unit for two years and even though he has done the training before he still continued to learn.
“This is my second time conducting this training,” said Rutherford. “I was able to get good hands on training and being able to see every step taken from the most senior in the training down to the junior level,”
Rutherford continues to be the best Soldier he can be by continuing to train and remain ready.
“I have gotten a lot out of the training,” said Rutherford. “I will be able to help out a lot more with the knowledge I have gotten from this session alone allowing me to be mission ready.”