Eight Black Hawk helicopters and two CH-47 Chinook helicopters will be flying over reservoirs in the Denver metropolitan area today and Thursday as they prepare for the coming fire season.
It is the biggest training exercise of its kind ever held in Colorado, with Black Hawks from the Army National Guards of Colorado, Wyoming and Kansas participating, said Capt. Darin Overstreet, of the Colorado National Guard.
The helicopters will be flying out of Buckley Air Force Base and will go to Chatfield, Cherry Creek and Bear Lake reservoirs, where they will be scooping up water and dropping them onto “target trees.”
The two Chinooks in the air today are from the Colorado Army National Guard, said Overstreet. The Chinooks were drawing water from Bear Lake Reservoir, which is between Lakewood and Morrison.
A similar exercise was conducted between 1 and 3 p.m. today at Buckley, where some of the helicopters drew water from a large portable water reservoir and dropped it onto a row of Evergreens at the Air Force installation.
The exercise is being conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service.
Overstreet said each of the Black Hawk crews consists of a pilot, co-pilot and up to two crew chiefs, who will help the pilots locate the targets.
The training has been six months in the planning and, for the first time, will bring crews together from three state National Guards.
The crews not only will be flying training missions but also will have classes at Buckley on fire weather conditions, helicopter management, safety and how to conduct the aerial operations.
Overstreet said the training is designed to enhance interagency cooperation and to ready Army National Guard pilots for firefighting missions. One of the primary focuses of the training exercise is to coordinate operations between the National Guard Black Hawks and firefighters on the ground.
In recent years, the Colorado Army National Guard has repeatedly helped local, state and national firefighters as they’ve fought forest fires in Colorado.
Overstreet noted that Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter will soon sign into law House Bill 1325, authorizing the state’s governors to activate the Guard in emergency or disaster situations. The aim of the new law, said Overstreet, is to enable the guard to help Coloradans sooner and more effectively on short notice.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
