A Wisconsin Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk aircrew with the Madison, Wis.-based 1st Battalion, 147th Aviation Regiment trains to drop water on wildfires March 28, 2022, using Bambi buckets at Fort McCoy, Wis.
Personnel with the Fort McCoy Fire Department, the Directorate of Public Works Natural Resources Branch, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and aircrew and Black Hawk helicopters with the 1st Battalion, 147th Aviation Regiment of Madison, Wis., participated in the fire training during a prescribed burn.
For the March 28 training, Big Sandy Lake on South Post was used for a water source for the Black Hawk crew to draw their water from. From there it was only a few miles to the drop area where a prescribed burn was taking place.
According to the Wisconsin National Guard, the bucket training allows Black Hawk flight crews to sharpen their skills. Understanding how to use the bucket can be used to potentially assist the people in a fire emergency, such as a wildfire response.
More prescribed burns will likely take place across Fort McCoy during spring 2022 and later in the year as conditions permit.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
