Any Army aviator will tell you that whoever is riding in the back of the aircraft is important. But for two groups of flyers in the Washington, D.C., area, the passengers are routinely VIPs.
The specialized organizations — the 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir, Va., and the U.S. Army Priority Air Transport command at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. — are tasked with transporting senior Army and government leaders. The 12th Avn. Bn. accomplishes the mission using helicopters, while the USAPAT flies state-of-the-art executive jets.
Both units are part of the Air Operations Group, recently established within the Army’s Military District of Washington and Joint Force Headquarters National Capital Region to handle several aviation-specific tasks [see accompanying box on page 12]. And while the 12th Avn. and USAPAT bring identical levels of professionalism and dedication to the mission, each approaches that mission in a distinct way.
Black Hawks on Call
Operating from Davison Army Airfield near Fort Belvoir, the 12th Avn. Bn. uses Black Hawk helicopters to fly two types of missions, said its commander, LTC William Crozier.
“First, we provide VIP transport within an area of operations that extends from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in the north, to Carlisle Barracks, Pa., in the west, to Fort Monroe, Va., in the south,” he said. “And second, we support contingency missions when directed by the MDW or JFHQ-NCR.”
Those missions, said MDW/JFHQ-NCR commander MG Guy C. Swan III, could include such things as “transporting Soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry (The Old Guard) on ceremonial duties, and aiding in the emergency evacuation of senior leaders from the capital during natural disasters or times of international crisis.”
The battalion comprises a headquarters company, two aircraft companies, an aviation-maintenance company, a civilian-manned airfield-operations unit — Davison Airfield Management — and, unusually for an organization of its type, a rescue engineer company.
Companies A and C operate two Black Hawk variants. Four heavily modified VH-60s feature enhanced avionics, plush executive interiors and special exterior paint schemes, and are used exclusively for transporting VIPs. The unit’s 14 standard UH-60s are also used for VIP work, as well as for the special contingency missions.
The 12th’s Co. D undertakes routine maintenance of all of the unit’s aircraft, while Davison Airfield Management operates and maintains Davison Army Airfield and the Pentagon heliport. The engineer company is a specialized technical-rescue organization intended to respond to emergencies within the NCR (and will be the subject of an in-depth article in an upcoming issue of Soldiers).
Challenging Airspace
While regulations covering the use of government-provided air transportation mean that most of the 12th Avn. Bn.’s VIP flights cover at least 100 miles, at some point each flight transits the NCR. And flying over the nation’s capital can be a very challenging experience, Crozier said.
“The Washington, D.C., region is designated by the Federal Aviation Administration as ‘Class B’ airspace, meaning it’s one of the busiest and most crowded,” he said. The fairly limited airspace is home to three major international airports and several smaller general-aviation fields, and the skies over the nation’s capital are routinely crowded with dozens of helicopters carrying out military missions, state and federal law-enforcement tasks, evacuating injured motorists or gathering news.
“Because it’s so crowded, you always have to know exactly where you are, and you always have to be where you’re supposed to be,” said CW2 Michael Hall, the 12th’s tactical-operations officer. “This region has a very well-defined route structure, and there’s no uncertainty about where the prohibited areas are. If pilots — military or civilian — lose focus or stray from where they’re supposed to be, major problems can develop very, very quickly.”
And a mid-air collision is not the only danger lurking in the capital region’s tightly regulated skies, Crozier said. Pilots who don’t follow all the rules are subject to interception by Air Force or U.S. Customs Service aircraft. In the worst-case scenario, suspect aircraft could be fired upon by one of the Army surface-to-air missile launchers sited around the region.