ARLINGTON, Va. - The Army announced last week that nine additional medevac companies would be added to the reserve component.
Army Lt. Gen. James D. Thurman, the G-3/5/7, told an audience at the annual Association of the U.S. Army Aviation Symposium and Exhibition here that no force-wide transformational change to the aviation force was more important or consequential than this decision.
"The Army will aggressively grow this strategic capability in order to improve air medical evacuation in combat," he said. "The priority will be Afghanistan with the first transformed, 15-ship company arriving late spring 2010."
Of these nine additional medevac companies, six will come to the Army National Guard.
Col. Garrett Jensen, the chief of the Army Guard's aviation and safety division, said four current companies would be modernized with UH-60 Black Hawks replacing the recently retired UH-1 Hueys.
"This is a very positive event for the Guard," he said. "I think we have lived up to our commitment to HQDA to perform .… . It also shows Big Army's confidence in us to perform and do the mission."
These aircraft will be dispersed between five states with each state getting three- or six-ship detachments, he said. The two new units would go to Mississippi and Texas.
Jensen added that the new aircraft have already started to arrive in some of the states.
"They will provide additional medevac capability across the states," he said. "It is a dual-use capability. It adds value to both the state governor and the adjutants general in homeland defense and allows us to make a greater contribution in overseas contingency operations."
About 65 percent of the Army's medevac capability currently resides in the Army Guard. Of 37 total Army medevac companies, the Army Guard has 21.
"It's a two-edge sword," Jensen said. "If [the Army] provides us with the capability and relies on us that heavily, we have to man, train and sustain as we have been doing."
Currently, the Army Guard has two medevac companies deployed to Afghanistan and one deployed to Iraq.
In April 2009, the Secretary of the Army announced that all 12-ship companies would be increased to 15 aircraft across the Army between FY2011-17.
For the Army Guard, with a total of 21 companies, that would equal 63 additional aircraft.
Jensen said priority would be given to units deploying in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. "Units coming up in the ARFORGEN (Army Force Generation) would be 'plus-ed up' with three-ship detachments," he said.
Other medevac units in the Guard are scheduled to receive the brand new HH-60M Medevac helicopter.
The first unit equipped with these helicopters, which is based in Vermont and Massachusetts, will deploy to Afghanistan later this year.
"It will be the first modern medevac company in theatre," Jensen said.
The UH-60M Black Hawk, which is another brand new aircraft headed for the Guard, will be deployed by an assault battalion based in Wisconsin and Michigan this year.
Jensen said the Guard will also continue to get more UH-72A Lakota helicopters. Fifty out of 210 of these aircraft have been fielded so far. The fielding is scheduled to be complete by 2015.
The Alabama Guard received its first Lakota this past weekend. The state plans to use this light utility helicopter to support military and civilian authorities, including local law enforcement agencies, through the Alabama Guard's counterdrug program.
Training for both active duty and Guard pilots of this helicopter is also being conducted by the Guard at the Eastern Aviation Training Site at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa.