Landing Zone
Transitioning Into the New Year Full-Throttle
We just completed our “new-format” 2025 Cribbins Futures Forum in Huntsville, AL. It was touch-and-go for a while with the government shutdown, but AAAA staff, our exhibitors and attendees executed with aplomb! At the end of the day, very few exhibitors cancelled, our sponsorship was up, and attendance was only slightly down. Truly a remarkable result considering that early Monday November 10, three days before the AAAA staff arrived on site in Huntsville, we made the decision to go ahead after cancelling the prior Friday night when all Senate talks had completely collapsed! Thank you to our Soldier and Industry...
Learn MoreGuardsmen Take Part in Aviation Exchange with Royal Thai Army and Navy During Recent Engagement
Story by Joseph Siemandel Guardsmen from the Washington National Guard’s 96th Aviation Troop Command conducted an Aviation Subject Matter Expert Exchange (SMEE) with Royal Thai aviation partners across multiple locations in Thailand from Nov. 28 to Dec. 16, 2025, strengthening long-standing relationships and advancing aviation safety and interoperability within the State Partnership Program (SPP). “The exchange began in Lopburi and Bangkok from Nov. 28 to Dec. 12, where our team worked alongside aviators and maintainers from the Royal Thai Army’s 9th, 41st and 2nd Aviation Battalions,” said CPT Taylor Payne, Army Aviation Support Facility 2 commander and SPP aviation liaison...
Learn MoreExercise Gallant Tower: Breaking New Ground in Joint Interoperability
Story by Staff Sgt. Erica Webster MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. — Exercise Gallant Tower brought together Reserve and active duty Airmen from the 908th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, 71st Rescue Squadron, the 729th Airlift Squadron, and Soldiers from the Alabama Army National Guard Detachment 2, Charlie Company, 111th General Support Aviation Battalion, for a joint patient-movement and refueling event unlike anything executed before in the state. Held between Sept. 5-7, 2025, the exercise was designed and led by the 908th AES, to push ground and flying crew to operate in conditions that mimic future contested environments, scenarios they expect to...
Learn More‘Making Students into Aviation Warfighters’: AVCOE Honors FY2025 Instructors of the Year
Story by Kelly Morris FORT RUCKER, Ala.–The Aviation Center of Excellence honored its Instructors of the Year for Fiscal Year 2025 in a ceremony at Fort Rucker, Ala., Dec. 16. Each quarter throughout the year, academic instructors and flight instructors from around the AVCOE and Fort Rucker are nominated by their supervisors for the honor of competing for Instructor of the Quarter. They are evaluated on quality of instruction, quality of materials developed and used, and quality of their presentation. The Instructors of the Year are determined from the quarterly winners. The Instructors of the Year for FY25 are: The...
Learn MoreFort Rucker Soldier Jumps at the Chance to Honor the Past
Story by Leslie Herlick FORT RUCKER, Ala. — Sgt. 1st Class Riley B. Watts III is the first sergeant for A Company 1-14th Aviation Regiment, the Army’s largest AH-64 Apache helicopter company, but his interest in becoming a Soldier started with a different kind of aviation Soldier: the World War II paratrooper. This dream began long before he wore an Army uniform. It started in his living room as a teen, watching stories of courage and sacrifice unfold on the screen. “Before joining the Army, I, like many others, watched ‘Band of Brothers,’” said Watts. “That series opened doors I...
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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.
View Archive“The Army Air Corps is Back,”
Looking Back By Mark Albertson “The Army Air Corps is Back,”[1] * * * * * Few taxpayers are aware of the needless expense caused by the duplication of Air Force functions through the formation of another air force by the United States Army. In fact, this Army air force comprises a fourth air force. Complementing those now existing of the Navy, the Marines, and the United States Air Force itself. The wastefulness of this action is shown in the plans of each commander of a field army to use 939 Army aircraft. These are in addition to the Air...
Learn MoreOperation: DESERT SHIELD
Looking Back, November 2025 By Mark Albertson Operation: DESERT SHIELD * * * * * The single biggest maneuver factor on the battlefield was the Apache. If there was one leverage device that we used it was the Army general support aviation battalion. In my judgment, for the number of soldiers involved, and the price involved, the biggest leverage we got out of the very few numbers of helicopters, the tiny number of helicopters, that we devoted to support logistics, and command and control in general: the Signal battalion commander, the Maneuver Brigade commanders, the DISCOM commander, and the Division...
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Army Aviation Magazine is the Official Journal of the Army Aviation Association of America (AAAA)
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