A Black Hawk makes its first ASU landing

Helicopter comes to ASU, takes Desert Rangers to training exercise

 by Emma Breysse
 published on Monday, February 25, 2008

Bettina Hansen / THE STATE PRESS

SAFE LANDING: A Black Hawk helicopter landed and picked up members of the Army ROTC’s Desert Rangers on the Student Recreation Complex fields Friday during a training session.

Bettina Hansen / THE STATE PRESS

DOWN ON THE GROUND: Members of the Army ROTC’s Desert Rangers prepare to board a Black Hawk helicopter that landed on the Student Recreation Complex fields Friday for a training drill.

With a rush of noise and a cloud of dust, a Black Hawk helicopter landed on the Student Recreation Complex fields Friday for the first time in University history.

Thirty members of the Desert Rangers, a group within ASU's Reserve Officers' Training Corp, boarded the aircraft as part of a training and leadership exercise, said Cadet Maj. Nicholas Gilewitch, the group's commander.

"We've been trying to get helicopters back into cadet training for five years," he said. "It's pretty exciting for the men because, for a lot of them, this is their first time even seeing a Black Hawk."

Gilewitch, a geography senior, is in his third year with the Desert Rangers — a group he said is composed of ROTC cadets who want to gain more extensive leadership training than they could get in the normal course of their ROTC duties.

He added that Friday's event was the result of two months of planning and red tape.
The Black Hawks were provided by the 285th Army National Guard Aviation Unit out of Papago Military Reserve.

Cadets boarded the helicopters and were flown to Papago. They then completed a 6.1-mile road march back to ASU, Gilewitch said.

The Black Hawk made three landings, about 40 minutes apart, and drew crowds of students each time.

Observers gaped at the sky and took cell phone pictures through the gust of wind and debris that accompanied the Black Hawks.

The cadets waited in groups of 10, wearing their 50-pound rucksacks, as their commanding officers looked on and non-flying cadets photographed and video-taped the occasion.

At the end of the day, the Desert Rangers performed well, said Lt. Col. Kirk E. McIntosh, the chair of the Department of Military Science and the commanding officer of ASU's ROTC.

"I'm very impressed with the way they handled themselves today," he said. "[Desert Rangers] is just an awesome bunch of kids, and they boarded very quickly and efficiently."

Despite the long march in intermittent rain showers ahead of them, the mood among the cadets was one of excitement.

"Going up in a Black Hawk is totally worth it," said a cadet waiting to board, who was not authorized to give his name.

"Definitely," said one of his fellow Desert Rangers. "This is going to be awesome."

Reach the reporter at: emma.breysse@asu.edu.