MARANA, Ariz. – Pilots and crews from aviation units throughout the Army National Guard that fly the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter kicked off the first day of the inaugural Gunfighter Fly-in at Silverbell Army Heliport, testing their mettle against each other for the title of best-of-the-best.
The training exercise and competition tests competitors on a variety of graded flying and gunnery scenarios with the top team in the competition receiving an award for its performance and bragging rights for its home unit.
"We welcome competition," said Army Capt. Ben Hickman, of the Texas Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 149th Aviation Regiment. "That's one of the things about being a gunfighter. We all have Type-A personalities and so we look forward to getting to compete, but at the same time the underlying thing of this is to integrate with other units."
The Gunfighter Fly-in is an opportunity to share tactics, techniques and procedures, best practices and lessons learned throughout the Army Guard Apache community. The competition also builds a unity of effort among the units that fly the aircraft.
"This is a great opportunity to network with your peers," said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Leonard Vidalez, also with 1st Battalion, 149th Aviation Regiment. "Everybody has experiences and knowledge to share with one another; it's just more information for your tool kit to use at a future date or implement at the very next mission."
The amount of skills and experience throughout the Army Guard Apache community are invaluable to the Total Force.
"We have the same skill sets, we have the same capabilities, same abilities, so we're a key enabler and contributor to the [warfight], both for foreseen and unforeseen events across the globe," said Col. Christopher Baril, commander of the 98th Aviation Troop Command and the Western Army National Guard Aviation Training Site.
Though the Gunfighter Fly-in is a training exercise, the competition element brings these units closer together and many pilots said it makes the overall experience more effective for training purposes.
"It's a competition but you wish everybody the best and you want everybody to be safe," Hickman said. "We're a close-knit community; we're a very small community. When we come together we're one team. We're one family."