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Going Airborne with the 274th ASOS

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Ryan Campbell
  • 107th Airlift Wing
FORT DRUM, N.Y. --  More than 15 Airmen from the 274th Air Support Operations Squadron, Syracuse, conducted airborne and air assault training at Ft. Drum, Sept. 10, 2016.

The Airmen conducted a series of parachute jumps as part of an annual requirement to meet a minimum amount of jumps for those that are qualified. Supporting the Airmen were four UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters from the 10th Aviation Brigade, Ft. Drum, and a CH-47 Chinook helicopter from the 1-169th General Support Aviation Battalion, Rochester.

"The purpose of conducting parachute operations was to facilitate training for both Air Force Joint Terminal Attack Controllers and the UH-60 Black Hawk crews," said Senior Master Sgt. Eric Muller, superintendent of the 274th ASOS. "The training and familiarization of integrating assets into a larger mission is paramount in training individuals for combat operations."

Along with the parachute jumps, the 274th ASOS also inserted an air assault force into one of the drop zones as part of a scenario which also involved close air support.

"The Civil Air Patrol from Syracuse, prior F-16 pilots, acted as our role players for close air support bringing in another level of realism," said Muller. "Simply conducting parachute operations is beneficial, but by combining with close air support from platforms with multiple air players brings a certain amount of stress and real world factors which increases our training value across the spectrum of joint operations and between Air Force and Army aviation."

Moving forward, the 274th ASOS plans to integrate aviation with live fire training exercises, said Muller. Future plans include bringing in F-16 fighter jets for close air support training, combined with air assault support from Army helicopters, said Muller.