Leveraging the Strength of the Aviation Materiel Enterprise
Program Executive Officer / By BG Robert L. Marion: The Program Executive Office-Aviation (PEO AVN) and the Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) partner daily at the tactical and strategic level. Attendees at the Aviation Senior Leader Dinner in the Army Aviation Museum at Fort Rucker, AL on Feb 3. / AAPI PHOTO BY BILL HARRIS AMCOM personnel are embedded (matrixed) within PEO Aviation’s program management organizations, performing key sustainment functions, and providing logistics and engineering expertise. In addition to providing a full complement of sustainment functions for our aircraft, AMCOM holds the authority for independent oversight of airworthiness, and assesses...
Learn MoreUsing Emerging Technologies
128th Aviation Brigade / By SGM Martin J. Moreno: The 128th Aviation Brigade is continually improving institutional training with key stakeholders and specialists ensuring instruction maintains fidelity to the Army Learning Concept. Group-style, course-based learning was effective in the past, but today’s Army consists of Soldiers and civilians that rely on learner-centric adaptive learning techniques. Screenshot of UH-60M interactive training, an example of a digital maintenance training module that exists and is currently being used in the 15T10 UH-60 Helicopter Repairer Course./ 128TH AVN BDE GRAPHIC To meet these demands, courses at the 128th AB are being developed with increased...
Learn MoreTraining – Leveraging the Team
AMCOM Command Sergeant Major / By CSM Glen Vela: As the Army continues to reshape both structure and manning levels, leaders at all echelons are faced with the challenge to accomplish their missions with fewer soldiers. Within the aviation community, this challenge is compounded by an aging fleet that in some cases requires more man-hours to maintain. A Soldier trains on advanced welding techniques at Corpus Christi Army Depot. / U.S. ARMY PHOTO BY CCAD PUBLIC AFFAIRS It is essential to have highly qualified and skilled mechanics and crew chiefs if equipment readiness targets are to be achieved under these...
Learn MoreReadiness: Essential roles of the Warrant Aviation Maintenance Officers
Aviation Branch Maintenance Officer / By CW5 Leonte I. Cardona: Within the Army team, Soldiers have unique positions within critical mission sets. In Army Aviation, we continuously operate, employ, maintain and manage attack, assault, or cargo assets in support of the ground combatant commander. A 101st Combat Avn. Bde. UH-60 at Forward Operating Base Bastion, Afghanistan. AMOs are critical to generating the sorties the joint team expects from Army aviation. / U.S. ARMY PHOTO BY CW5 LEONTE I. CARDONA As a branch, we conduct individual, crew and collective training to focus and prepare our personnel, resulting in the best aircrews...
Learn MoreHow We as a Nation Will Remain Resilient
Family Forum / By Judy Konitzer: Our entire family spent an amazing Thanksgiving holiday in New York City. And although I hate to admit it, I was a bit intimidated when thinking about all the possibilities for terrorist activity especially after the Paris incident. We had family arriving on 5 separate flights from different parts of the country and made plans to take in the many attractions that New York had to offer, especially for the holidays. Bonnie Carroll was one of 17 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 24, 2015 at the White House. She is...
Learn MoreAviation Restructuring Initiative (ARI)
By COL John M. Cyrulik and CPT John M. Commerford: The 1st Infantry Division Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB, 1ID) recently completed a significant milestone in ARI by modernizing the CAB’s Heavy Attack Reconnaissance Squadron (H-ARS). The 1st Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment (1-6 H-ARS) at Fort Riley, Kansas is the first active component Army unit to transform its fleet of OH-58D Kiowa Warrior aircraft to the AH-64D Apache from the Army National Guard (ARNG). LTC Travis M. Habhab, commander, Gunfighters, 1-1st Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, arrives at Marshall Army Airfield, Oct. 15 at Fort Riley, Kansas....
Learn MoreInnovation In Today’s Fiscal Environment
Arming the Force / By MG L. Neil Thurgood and COL James S. Romero: PEO Missiles and Space (PEO M&S) and the Joint Attack Munition Systems (JAMS) Project Office are mission focused to develop, field, and sustain versatile weapon systems for the U.S. Army, the Joint Force, and our coalition Warfighters providing a decisive combat advantage. HELLFIRE launch illustration Production of these weapons and improving them remain key aspects of providing critical capabilities to Warfighters ensuring the Army can effectively destroy current and future threats. The challenge we continue to face is being able to conduct modernization of existing equipment,...
Learn MoreCCAD – Looking Beyond the Horizon
Aviation Maintenance / By COL Billingsley Garner Pogue III and CSM Stephen D. Odom: The Corpus Christi Army Depot (CCAD) has a single unwavering mission: to support U.S. Army and Department of Defense Aviation with Joint helicopter readiness and sustainment. Our Joint Force’s helicopters are critical to national security around the globe where they provide transport, combat support, rescue, and humanitarian aid. In today’s complex security environment, our Nation’s Warfighters are called to respond to a growing number of never-before-seen challenges in Army Aviation as we face increasing threats from emergent adversaries employing the latest technology and weapon systems. With...
Learn MoreAMCOM’s Support to Soldiers
Aviation Maintenance / By Mr. Sammy Burns: While Soldiers are the forefront of the readiness equation, the Army remains reliant on external support to meet the high OPTEMPO inherent to aviation. The AMCOM Logistic Center’s (ALC) Aviation Field Maintenance Directorate (AFMD) enhances the Army’s Aviation maintenance support capabilities and aircraft readiness worldwide. As one of AMCOM’s key enablers to the field, AFMD provides augmentation to help meet requirements and continuously adapts to support dynamic global maintenance needs. A UH-60 covered at Dobbins AFB, GA. AMCOM employees provide a wide range of support, including deployment/redeployment, phase maintenance, transport, and other tasks...
Learn MoreReadiness is a Team Sport
Aviation Maintenance / By MG James M. Richardson: We make better decisions when we have less money. –Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder,Apple Computer: It is fifteen years since I deployed with my Apache battalion to Afghanistan during the earliest stages of Operation Enduring Freedom. At that moment in time, Army Aviation had spent the previous ten years training for combat at a reduced operational tempo (OPTEMPO), and essentially living off the parts purchased to support Operation Desert Storm. While we were trained and proficient in our battle tasks, Army Aviation as a whole was not prepared to sustain deployed forces in combat...
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