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DRAPER — It was awe-inspiring as 12 AH-64 Apache helicopters flew in formation over the south end of the Salt Lake Valley and landed at the Utah National Guard Air Support Base after returning from a complex training exercise in California.
The exercise, called “Operation Thunder Hammer,” was the largest of its kind, and it gave more than 120 members of the attack helicopter unit a chance to hone the skills they would need on the battlefield.
The 1st-211th Division is not scheduled for deployment anytime soon. For the first time in 13 years, the Utah National Guard does not have any units slated for deployment.
“What I enjoy about it personally is making sure the guys on the ground feel secure,” said CW 2 Brant Wayment of the 1st-211th Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, which provides air cover for ground troops on the battlefield.
That’s what they did in Afghanistan when the 1st-211th deployed twice in recent years.
“With our sensors in different things that we have on the helicopter, we can look miles ahead and see things that the grounds guy can’t, and relay those back,” 1st Lt. Garet Cooper said.
Over the past few weeks in California, Utah Guardsmen and their California colleagues moved more than 1,200 troops onto a training battlefield with 22 aircraft in a record-setting training mission.
The pilots were supported by more than 90 ground personnel who kept the helicopters running and ready for battle.
“When everybody gets together on that large of a scale, it gives everyone as close to real-world training as we can get,” Wayment said.
Recently, a proposal arose to take the Apaches out of reserve units and move them exclusively to active Army units. But the Guard believes it has the experience and the training to do the job. These large-scale exercises help hone those skills.
“We were providing cover security, all of those things that we do in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Cooper said.
In other words, they are ready when they deploy again.
“We will fly around and make sure that the landing zone is secure, that no harm comes to them,” Wayment said. “That’s our whole goal, and our whole job.”
