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Measuring Aviation Training Program Effectiveness

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Army Aviation Senior Leaders Forum


Your AAAA leadership has just returned from the Aviation Senior Leaders’ Forum at Fort Novosel, AL, held January 22-25, 2024. What an extraordinary forum hosted by our Branch Chief, MG Mac McCurry, and his Branch Team, with the theme of “Transforming Aviation Warfighting – Strengthening the Sacred Trust.” From the opening “Gathering of Leaders” reception at the Army Aviation Museum, to the classified and unclassified briefings covering the status of Army Aviation and our Army, to the Aviation Awards Dinner that recognized both AAAA Functional Awards winners and the LTG Ellis D. Parker Aviation Unit Award winners, it was simply...

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Roaring Into the New Year!


The Annual Summit in Denver will be barely 90 days away by the time you read this. Incredible! We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s holiday; really looking forward to the year ahead and the great work that your Association will do in support of our Aviation family. Bill Harris and I had the privilege of travelling to Lubbock, Texas after Thanksgiving to join the leadership of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association (VHPA) Legacy Committee to see how our Association might best support them in the future, as it plans its inevitable ‘sunset.’ Art Jacobs and...

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Determined to Fly Again


CONCORD, NH, UNITED STATES 01.03.2024 Story by Staff Sgt. Courtney Rorick 114th Public Affairs Detachment After receiving intel of a potential Iranian attack on Al Asad Air Base, in western Iraq, Capt. Brendan Meehan began calling units from the operations tent, warning them to seek shelter. In the early morning hours of Jan 8, 2020, Iran sent a barrage of 22 missiles targeted at coalition headquarters in Al Asad and Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq, in response to the U.S. assassination of Iranian Commander Qassem Soleimani. A missile struck only 100-yards from Meehan’s location, causing a 500-yard shockwave and...

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Chinook Instructor Pilot Retires from Federal Service at 10,000 Hours


FORT NOVOSEL, AL, UNITED STATES 12.22.2023 Story by Kelly Morris U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence FORT NOVOSEL, Ala. — It is said that students are often just one encouraging instructor away from being a success story. For many Chinook pilots over the past 20 years, that instructor was Department of the Army Civilian Charles Mineo, a retired chief warrant officer 4 who served during Desert Storm. Upon his recent flight in the Chinook marking his 10,000th incident-free flying hour, the well-known instructor pilot at Knox Army Heliport, who is often described as “unorthodox” in his methods, stepped away from...

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Ending the Year with a Bang!


First, on behalf of the entire AAAA National Executive Board, and Bill Harris and Janis Arena’s team at the Monroe, Connecticut AAAA global headquarters, I would like to wish you and your families all the peace that is the promise of this holiday season. We hope you have had some time to enjoy each other’s company and appreciate all we must be thankful for. As we start the new year, we are blessed for all that AAAA does, and will do, for you and your families in the future. We have just concluded our Cribbins Readiness Conference in Huntsville, Alabama...

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Army Aviation

Looking Back


Looking Back: A monthly look into the history of Army Aviation based not only on the evolution of Army Aviation itself, but events in military history that certainly influenced the evolution of the Aviation Branch of the United States Army.

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Parochial Thinking / Seeds of Contention


Looking Back, March 2024 By Mark Albertson Parochial Thinking / Seeds of Contention On June 4, 1920, the National Defense Act was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson. The Act saw fit to organize the United States Army as an aggregate of three subdivisions: The Regular Army, National Guard and the organized reserves of civilians or Officers’ and Enlisted Reserve Corps. The Regular Army was to have a manpower strength of 17,726 officers and 280,000 enlisted. Of course, this was dependent upon Congress and whether it appropriated enough money for a ground force of even this size. And this...

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Air Defense Tactics of Soviet Airborne Units


Looking Back, February 2024 By Mark Albertson Air Defense Tactics of Soviet Airborne Units By Thomas M. Salisbury, III Edited by Mark Albertson [Thomas M. Salisbury, III, an Intelligence Analyst with the Red Team, Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, HQDA, attended the Virginia Military Institute and served in the U.S. Army Security Agency from 1966 to 1970.] * Army Aviation, pages 49-52, Vol. 29, No. 11, Army Aviation Publications, Inc., Westport, Ct., November 30, 1980. * * * * * Soviet military journals categorize the primary threat to parachute and heliborne assault forces on landing to...

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