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Measuring Aviation Training Program Effectiveness

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Summit Is Almost Here!


As we enter the final days of preparation for the AAAA Annual Summit in Nashville May 14-16, 2025, we recognize the importance of your Association to serve as THE catalyst and enabler for the gathering of our entire Army Aviation Community. So grateful to be able to report that we are looking at our largest annual gathering ever in terms of attendee registration and Industry commitment and sponsorship. The Gaylord Opryland is sold out (with over 800 folks on the waiting list), exhibits are sold out, and we are opening a second exhibit area to accommodate the incredible support and...

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Advancing Into Prime Season


We are certainly entering our prime season with the recently executed Luther Jones Depot Maintenance Forum in Corpus Christi, TX, now in the rear-view mirror, and on the horizon… our AAAA Annual Summit in Nashville, 14-16 May. You can see the full Luther Jones wrap up on page 36. We very much appreciated the tremendous coordination and integration with the Corpus Christi Army Depot Commander COL Kevin Considine and his team to plan, develop, and support the Forum. We had a solid two days of dynamic and impactful presentations and discussions on topics ranging from Supply Chain challenges in Large-Scale...

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AKARNG Black Hawk Crew Executes Novel Train Touchdown, Supports Advanced MEDEVAC Capabilities in SOFAM 25


Story by Staff Sgt. Seth LaCount JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska —During the culminating training event of exercise Special Operation Forces Arctic Medic 2025, Alaska Army National Guard aviators assigned to Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 211th General Support Aviation Battalion landed a HH-60M Black Hawk helicopter on the platform of an Alaska Railroad rail car that was staged on a bridge above the Chena River, in the vicinity of Fairbanks, Alaska, Feb 20, 2025. The two-wheel touchdown on a rail car had never been attempted by an AKARNG aviator and was a unique training experience for the entire crew. Dissimilar to...

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1st TSC Revolutionizes Aviation Engine Repair in CENTCOM


Story by Vanessa Schell Efforts to increase U.S. Army warfighter capability and repair efficiency in theater were strengthened with the recent inception of an aviation engine repair shop. Over a year ago, an aviation logistics officer with the 1st Theater Sustainment Command, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Codi Walker, brought forth a plan for an expeditionary engine shop in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. This plan was pitched to the 1st TSC commander, Maj. Gen. Eric Shirley, by the Aviation Field Maintenance Directorate at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. The plan was approved and would proceed as a three-phase project. Helming...

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Getting a Branch Update and Chapter Feedback


Your AAAA National Executive Group, plus Executive Director, Mr. Bill Harris, have just returned from the annual Aviation Leaders Conference at Fort Novosel, AL. Many thanks to our great Branch Chief, MG Clair Gill, for including the Aviation ‘Gray Beard’ cohort in this really impactful gathering of our Army Aviation leadership teams from all components and organizations. It truly is an invaluable opportunity to engage with our Army and Aviation leaders to understand the current state of the Branch, and importantly the vision for the future. AAAA exists to support the Army Aviation Soldier and family, and the broader Army...

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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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80th Anniversary of World War II: Army Aviation: The Pacific Theater


Looking Back, May 2025 By Mark Albertson 80th Anniversary of World War II: Army Aviation: The Pacific Theater Combat conditions in the Pacific Theater of Operations differed from those in the European Theater.  From the start, the war in the West was, for the most part, of a conventional type:  Infantry, artillery, armor, used on a scale not seen in the Pacific.  From the North African Desert, onto Sicily, up the Italian boot and across the French countryside into Germany, armies were employed on a level conducive to the precepts of maneuver and mobility, combining ground power with airpower as...

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Operation: KIKUSUI


Looking Back, April 2025 By Mark Albertson Operation: KIKUSUI * * * * * “We are 16 warriors manning the bombers.  May our death be as sudden as the shattering of glass, . . . from the letter of a Kamikaze pilot.”[2] * * * * * It was 80 years ago, April 1, 1945, that Operation:  ICEBERG commenced.  GIs and marines waded ashore to nary the expected opposition, unlike at Tarawa, Saipan, Guam, Peleliu and a half a hundred other places.  The marines struck out for the northern half of the island, encountering light resistance; while the Army, moving...

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