‘Legend Connection’
The 3-142nd Assault Helicopter Battalion is no stranger to Puerto Rico. In September 2017, four UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and 60 personnel were deployed to the island in the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria to help evacuate people, transport aid workers, deliver relief supplies, and conduct medical evacuation flights from Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and St. Maarten.
In the recent deployment named Legend Connection, cooperation with local relief agencies, the military, and law enforcement units were once again central. Several humanitarian relief and disaster response scenarios included crucial roles for the helicopters of the 3-142nd AHB and 1-171st GSAB. In close cooperation with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), personnel from local urban search and rescue teams, the U.S. Department of Justice, and FURA (an acronym for Joint Forces of Rapid Action) were transported to a fictitious disaster location and later retrieved. It involved positioning helicopters from Camp Santiago to San Juan/Isla Grande Airport, where the relief workers were picked up for a flight to the island of Culebra and later retrieved for the flight back to San Juan.
Because Puerto Rico also suffers significantly from illegal human trafficking and a near-constant influx of drugs, a special exercise was set up in cooperation with the CBP-AMO (Customs and Border Patrol - Air and Marine Operations) at Boqueron in Cabo Rojo. The pilots flown in from the New York Army National Guard received an extensive briefing from the
CBP-AMO about the tasks and challenges they face almost daily. This includes the use of fast boats to intercept illegal refugees and drug couriers in fast boats coming from the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean islands. Helicopters aid is indispensable, and special interception tactics have been developed for them. Communication between boat and helicopter during these tactical maneuvers is key. In the bay of Boqueron, a drug interception was staged with an “enemy” boat and two CBP 41-foot SAFE (secure all-around flotation equipped) boats. In turn, the New York Army National Guard pilots flew an interception action in their UH-60L/Ms under the expert guidance of the experienced CBP pilots in their UH-60s.
Other exercises included personal recovery missions that dropped soldiers in the rugged and sometimes inhospitable Puerto Rican terrain. They had to find their way to a designated pick-up point using analog navigation to be flown back to Camp Santiago. Special missions were also conducted for the UH-60L medevac helicopters and their crews, where patients were brought to Camp Santiago by ambulance and then flown to hospitals across the island. More missions took place with the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters of the Puerto Rico Army National Guard to Borinquen, Puerto Rico, and St. Croix of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Preparations began June 10 for the mainland redeployment by flying the helicopters back from Camp Santiago to San Juan International Airport to be dismantled for transport by a Boeing C-17A Globemaster.
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