helicopters

Arriving aboard Pre-Commissioning Unit Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) Marine One was escorted by U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft

Taken on Mar. 2, 2017, the interesting photos in this post show President of the United States (POTUS) Donald J. Trump arriving aboard Pre-Commissioning Unit Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) on Marine One for a tour of the ship.

The president landed on the flight deck on Marine One (which actually is the call sign of any United States Marine Corps aircraft carrying the President of the United States and it usually denotes a helicopter operated by Marine Helicopter Squadron One (HMX-1 “Nighthawks”), either the large Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King or the newer, smaller VH-60N “White Hawk”) accompanied by Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. They were welcomed aboard Ford by Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. John Richardson and Capt. Richard McCormack, Ford’s commanding officer.

As can be seen in the photos, Marine One was escorted by U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

“This carrier and the new ships in the Ford class will expand the ability of our nation to carry out vital missions on the oceans and to project American power in distant lands,” Trump said to an audience of over 3.500.

“It was an honor to welcome aboard our commander-in-chief,” said McCormack. “My Sailors have put tremendous work and energy into making Ford an operational asset to the fleet, and I could not be more proud to have him here to see this team.” Susan Ford Bales, daughter of President Gerald R. Ford and the ship’s sponsor greeted Trump on the flight deck and welcomed him into the captain’s in-port cabin, where he met with Ford Sailors and shipbuilders for a roundtable discussion. Following a brief tour of crew habitability spaces and unique technology, Trump descended to Ford’s hangar bay via an aircraft elevator for an “All Hands Call” with Ford Sailors and shipbuilders.

The presidential visit marked a week full of “firsts”. It was Trump’s first visit to an aircraft carrier and the first time the aircraft carrier, named in honor of the 38th president, Gerald R. Ford, had ever received a president. Earlier that week, an MV-22 Osprey marked a critical milestone in the life of the ship by becoming the first aircraft to land on Ford’s flight deck, making Ford the only ship to receive an aircraft before its commissioning.

Source: Gerald R. Ford Public Affairs and U.S. Navy; Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Elizabeth Thompson / U.S. Navy

Each pilot was required to make 5 approaches and landings during both day and night segments to obtain a qualification in the maneuver

Taken on Oct. 11, 2016, the following pictures show UH-60 Blackhawk and AH-64 Apache helicopters assigned to Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 111th Aviation Regiment, 77th Combat Aviation Brigade, conducting deck landings in the Arabian Gulf aboard the USNS Alan Shepard to qualify their crews in this type of maneuver.

Army pilots and aircrew of several different types of rotary aircraft have taken advantage of this unique training opportunity during their deployment to Camp Buehring, Kuwait.

“Attaining and maintaining the skills required to land on a ship at sea is a task mostly associated with Navy and Marine Aviators. It’s usually not practiced by Army aviators because of the lack of assets and money,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Bohuslav J. Humplik, 77th CAB pilot and Liaison to U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.

Humplik added that operating aircraft over water during both daylight and darkness is a great training opportunity for Army aviators because it presents challenges to navigation, communication, and logistics.

“As the military gets funded less and stretched more, tasks that were the responsibility of other branches need to be picked up by whoever is there, so we train more to do more with less” he pointed out.

Training exercises like these play an important role in mission readiness and total force capability by increasing interoperability between branches, which is vital for collaboration missions. A claim was confirmed by Humplik who said that joint training exercises are a great way to expand the teams’ skill sets and help them work to identify issues before involvement in a real operation.

Each pilot was required to make 5 approaches and landings during both day and night segments to obtain a qualification in the maneuver.

Upon completion of the qualifications, each aircraft was refueled by the USNS Alan Shepard crew.

Conducting joint operations between Navy and Army units is critical to the improvement of joint planning and coordination capabilities, as remarked by Petty Officer 1st Class Christian Diamante, Coastal Reserve Group 2 member and chief of the guard for the USNS Alan Shepard “When we have to do a real mission, whether it be search and rescue, refueling, or evacuation it’s nice to know that everyone is better prepared and can work efficiently together because of these types of trainings.”

Photo by Sgt. Aaron Ellerman / U.S. Army