More than 170 Soldiers from the Oregon Army National Guard’s 2nd of the 641st Aviation Battalion converged on two of the military’s premier combat training ranges in southern Idaho for an extended, combined aviation training exercise, April 16-26.

The battalion split its training between the Idaho Army National Guard’s Orchard Combat Training Center and Saylor Creek at the Mountain Home Range Complex.

“This exercise allowed us to mobilize and move operations for our entire battalion,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Ben DeGroot, a pilot with the 2-641 Aviation Battalion. “With our multiple battalion elements scattered across Oregon, we were able to come here, set up a tactical operations center and a command post, and our flight operations are working with multiple aircraft types.”

With more than 170,000 acres of maneuver and live-fire space and support facilities, the OCTC is capable of housing and facilitating large-scale, multi-element training. During the training, ORARNG CH-47D Chinooks and HH-60M Black Hawks practiced sling-loading with howitzers, high-altitude training and medevac hoist training.

“This was the largest collective training we’ve ever done as a battalion,” said Maj. Daniel Russell, battalion operations officer. “We’ve sent Black Hawks to Canada to support Operation Maple Resolve. We’ve trained with Marines at the Marine Corp Mountain Warfare Training Center in California. We do a lot of different things, but usually we’re spread out and in smaller groups.”

The 110,000-acre Saylor Creek Range provided the battalion the aerial live-fire space to train their door gunners, crew chiefs and flight engineers.

“As far as training areas go, nothing as large as these ranges exist in Oregon,” said DeGroot. “The Chinooks flew around Saylor Creek day and night conducting gunnery training to qualify all of their door gunners simultaneously.”

Southern Idaho’s world-class military infrastructure coupled with its local support continues to provide visiting units with an extensive set of unique training opportunities.

For their Black Hawks, Russell said the ORARNG was able to coordinate with the Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise to land at its heliport.

“The main purpose of this exercise was to deploy and train as a battalion,” said Russell. “This event will definitely set us up to support next year’s training rotations.”