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 Louisiana aviators launch into battle with oil spill By Sgt. 1st Class Paul C. Meeker
                Louisiana National Guard
 BATON ROUGE, La., - "Launch, Recover, Launch" best describes the
operations tempo of the helicopter missions being performed by the Louisiana
Army National Guard's State Aviation Command in their ongoing response to
the threat of oil spillage along Louisiana's gulf coast. "Aviation's being leaned on pretty heavily . just look at the flying hours,"
said Col. Patrick R. Bossetta, commander of the State Aviation Command,
which is located in Hammond, La. "We're flying between 40 and 50 hours a
day. I tell you that's a heck of a feat." Bossetta said this kind of operations tempo is almost as high as that
experienced by Louisiana aviation units deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in
the past few years. Maj. John P. Plunket, commander of the Army Aviation Support Facility also
in Hammond, La., described the engineering support missions as primarily
involving troop transport, sling-loading sand bags and critical engineering
equipment and aerial reconnaissance. The sling-loaded sand bags, often weighing up to 6,000 pounds per load,
according to Plunket, are dropped by UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters into island
breaches to stem the flow of oil into critical waters and marshes. These same helicopters are also employed to transport Soldiers and Airmen to
and from remote work sites, and to transport the critical pieces of
engineering the troops need to perform their missions, such as fuel pallets
and generators, said Plunket. The aerial reconnaissance missions are critical, because they provide local
authorities and emergency operations personnel the opportunity to see
firsthand how the shoreline is being affected and how mitigation resources
are being applied. "It is critical that they can take a look at what's going on in their
parishes, how their booms are laid out, what defenses they have to protect
themselves from any intrusion of oil and actually get eyes out on where the
oil may be in their particular parishes," said Bossetta. Following pre-flight procedures that begin before dawn, the aviation
missions launch from the Aviation Command's headquarters in Hammond, La.,
for work sites along Louisiana's coastline. Once the day's missions are completed, the aircraft return to Hammond, La.,
usually late in the evening, where the crew chiefs and maintenance
technicians perform critical post-flight procedures, Plunket said. "The aircrafts have to be turned around basically every day. They have to be
mission ready for the next day," said Sgt. Robert Cuevas III, a crew chief
and maintenance technician, who works full-time at the State Aviation
Command's support facility. "Basically the aircraft that fly one day are going to be flying the next
day," echoed Staff Sgt. Warren L. Smith, who also works full-time as a crew
chief and maintenance technician at the Hammond facility. Despite the long workdays the aviation crews have been putting in, the
aviators, crew chiefs and maintenance technicians have "good attitudes and
are committed to doing the best they can to serve the state of Louisiana,"
Plunkett said. Speaking with pride about the Soldiers in his command, Bossetta emphasized
that "they always rise to the occasion - they always do." The State Aviation Command is comprised of the 1/244th and the 2/244th
Assault Helicopter Battalions; Headquarters 204th, Theater Airfield
Operations Group; and Fox Company, 2/135th General Support Aviation
Battalion (formerly the 812th Medical Company), presently deployed to
Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
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