Landing Zone
Army Successfully Tests In-Flight Life-Saving System for Incapacitated Pilots
OINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. — Imagine a future where a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter pilot, mid-flight, loses consciousness, and an onboard automated system reads the pilot’s vitals and autonomously flies the aircraft back safely, even alerting a medical crew to be at the airfield ready to treat the incapacitated pilot. A groundbreaking fusion joining autonomous flight and operational monitoring of pilots’ vital signs just made that future possibility a present-day reality recently at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia. “This is the first time we have integrated the pilot’s health status to an autonomous flight control system,” said Carl Ott, a U.S. Army...
Learn MoreFace of Defense: Father, Daughter Helicopter Pilots Fly Together
Army Warrant Officer Meghan Polis, a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot in the New York National Guard, doesn’t remember it but she logged her first three hours of helicopter flight time when she was just 3 months old. Her father — New York Army National Guard Chief Warrant Officer 3 Stephen Polis — and her mother were going to a barbecue in Albany. They lived on Long Island and they decided to make the trip north by air instead of driving. The flight school Stephen Polis worked for at the time as an instructor pilot allowed him to borrow a...
Learn MoreMisty Dawn Tests National Guard Large-Scale Combat Operations (LSCO)
Story by Master Sgt. Arthur Wright ELKINS, West Virginia — To ensure an understanding of Large-Scale Combat Operations (LSCO) and increasingly contested battlespace by adversaries, the District of Columbia National Guard led over 20 air and ground units across the U.S. Army and Air Force for exercise “Misty Dawn” in Elkins, West Virginia, between March 4-14, 2025. The joint readiness exercise highlighted coalition interoperability and high-end integrated tactics. “Misty Dawn is an apex example of grassroots, unit-led, readiness and lethality innovation – Right Now! When leadership tells units to get after readiness, move faster, and increase lethality; Misty Dawn is...
Learn More3-25 “Hammerheads” Welcome New Commander During Change of Command Ceremony
Story by Capt. David Block WHEELER ARMY AIRFIELD, Hawaii – Soldiers, families and friends gathered to witness the ceremonial passing of the battalion colors as Lt. Col. Andrew S. Howell assumed command of 3rd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, during a change of command ceremony held recently on Wheeler Army Airfield. Lt. Col. Samuel J. Diehl relinquished command after leading the Hammerheads through a period marked by high operational tempo, strategic innovation, and vital aviation support missions across the Pacific. Col. Matthew J. Scher, commander of the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, praised Diehl’s leadership and the Hammerheads’...
Learn MoreWrenches Down, Ranks Up: 15R Maintainer SGT Ronald Roberts Named 2024 Aviation Soldier of the Year
Story by 1st Lt. Courtney Huhta FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — What began as a proud moment quickly turned into a career-defining milestone on stage for Sgt. Ronald Roberts after being named the AAAA Gary G. Wetzel Army Aviation Soldier of the Year at the 2025 Army Aviation Association of America Summit in Nashville, Tennessee. Roberts was preparing to return to his seat as followed by other recipients after delivering his acceptance speech—but instead, his wife was invited on stage. Maj Gen. Gill, Commanding General of the Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Novosel, took to the podium and pulled out...
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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 ArchiveRover Joe, Horsefly, Timothy and Pineapple
Looking Back, June 2025 By Mark Albertson Rover Joe, Horsefly, Timothy and Pineapple As with any other endeavor that is from the mind of man, there is that period of trial and error until that level of efficiency is hopefully attained. This was certainly the case with trying to reach a functioning system of joint forward air controllers so as to provide the ground forces with effective close air support. Following the campaign in North Africa and the 35-day Sicilian operation that resulted in the removal of Axis forces, it was not until the Italian campaign that greater efforts were...
Learn More80th 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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Army Aviation Magazine is the Official Journal of the Army Aviation Association of America (AAAA)
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