The Georgia Department of Defense alongside state partner, Georgia Defence Force, participates in the State Best Warrior Competition at the Cumming Readiness Center, Cumming, Georgia; the Catoosa Volunteer Training Site, Ringgold, Georgia; and Fort McClellan, Alabama, March 8-13, 2026. The competition demonstrates the readiness and lethality of the Georgia DoD and country of Georgia Defence Force soldiers by testing the competitors with physical fitness assessments, written exams, and other warrior tasks and battle drills. (U.S. Army National Guard video by Sgt. Chasity Williams)
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Ryan Jones and Warrant Officer 1 Austin Scales serve as UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilots for the Georgia Army National Guard. While that is a profound accomplishment on its own, both soldiers have also leveraged their military careers to create opportunities for success as civilian pilots.
Jones is an instructor pilot and Scales is an aviation safety officer. While their standard National Guard training missions might include weaving above the treetops of the North Georgia Mountains at 120 knots, their full-time jobs as commercial airline pilots have them gliding above the clouds, navigating international airspace at 30,000 feet. After three years flying for Frontier Airlines, they both credit the Georgia...
Georgia Army National Guard pilots Warrant Officer Austin Scales and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Ryan Jones from the Marietta-based 78th Aviation Troop Command pose in the cock pit of a UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter.
U.S. Airmen of the 165th Airlift Wing, Georgia Air National Guard, responded just before 7 p.m. Feb. 22, 2026, to contain a rapidly spreading brush fire located on the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport airfield.
The fire, which burned nearly 10 acres of grass surrounding the airfield, ignited shortly after an engine issue on a departing commercial aircraft and expanded quickly due to wind gusts reaching up to 60 mph. Fire attack...
