Students rappel out of a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter onto Smith-Bliss Field Thursday. The aircraft rappel was the second-to-last task the students had to complete before graduation. Photo by Spc. Rachael Estes.
Air assault training
165 graduate from physically challenging course
Spc. Rachael Estes, 32nd AAMDC Public Affairs
For more than 160 service-members, Friday represented the culmination of nearly two weeks of hard work as they pinned on their air assault wings at a graduation ceremony at Stayton Theater.
The Fort Bliss Air Assault Course produced the newest members of the air assault community, adding 161 Soldiers, three Airmen and one Marine to its ranks.
The course started Feb. 4 with 257 students enrolled, said 2nd Lt. Gregory Calhoun, officer-in-charge, B Company, Warrior Training Center. By the 10th day of training, that number had dwindled to 167 students.
Some of the many things students in the Air Assault Course had to complete to earn their wings were the air assault obstacle course, learning to sling-load military equipment, basic hand and arm signals, two days of rappelling off the air assault tower, an aircraft rappel and a 12-mile road march, with a full combat load, in under three hours. The class also involved classroom hours and tests to pass each of the course’s three phases.
An air assault instructor encourages a student during the last few yards of the Air Assault Course 12-mile road march. Photo by Spc. Rachael Estes.
“(The class) was wonderful,” said Air Force Senior Airman Roy Bruner, an air assault graduate assigned to Detachment 1, 3rd Air Support Operations Group, at Fort Bliss. “It was aggravating at times and somewhat difficult at times.”
Sgt. Maj. Michael Granado, an instructor at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy Non-Resident Course, was the senior enlisted servicemember for the class. “I was the class first sergeant major,” he said.
“The most difficult part of the course was keeping everybody together and on the same page,” Granado said. “There are a variety of (military occupational specialties) and ages.”
Granado, an Army Reservist who is an elementary school principal in his civilian life, added that he used the noncommissioned officer leadership tenets to engage the NCOs and officers so that the class came together as a team.
Staff Sgt. Israel Gonzalez, an Air Assault Course student, listens to a course instructor giving directions before rappelling off the wall side of the air assault tower. Photo by Spc. Rachael Estes.
Calhoun said that the mobile training team that teaches the course is based out of Fort Benning, Ga. The team consists of 14 instructors who are Army National Guard Soldiers from different states, but due to operational tempo, only eight instructors traveled to Fort Bliss to teach the course.
The Air Assault MTT teaches 12 to 14 classes per year at different Army installations, Calhoun added.