Copter unit gets settled at Drum

FORT DRUM — They operate the most advanced attack helicopters in the world, but now they're getting lessons in a more basic kind of equipment: snowplows.

Like any other new arrivals in the north country, the approximately 400 soldiers of the 1st Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment, 10th Mountain Division are getting some advanced snow removal training as the unit relocates from Hunter Army Airfield at Fort Stewart, Ga., to their new home at Fort Drum, Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Mike Slocum said Friday. He spoke following a formal ceremony at 10 a.m. in a hangar at Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield, in which the unit uncased its colors, signifying its activation here.

The battalion is introducing some new equipment to Fort Drum, too: the Apache Longbow, the Army's primary attack helicopter. Twenty-five brand-new AH-64D Apaches will contribute greater firepower and combat capability to the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, which now includes Kiowas, Black Hawks and Chinooks.

Chinooks are used for transport of personnel and equipment; small, fast Kiowa Warriors are used for scouting and combat missions, and versatile Black Hawks can be used for either assault or transport.

While the Kiowa Warrior was designed primarily for reconnaissance with attack as its secondary capability, the Apache "was designed purely for attack," said Maj. Scott Gallaway, the battalion's executive officer.

"It's designed to take rounds and still be able to maneuver," he said.

The battalion and the brigade are well acquainted. The Tigersharks, as the Apache unit is known, has been assigned to the 10th Mountain Division since August 2008, and deployed to Iraq with the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade that fall. It previously was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division, housed at Fort Stewart.

The unit's move is part of an Armywide effort to equalize the capability of its aviation brigades, redistributing some smaller units to transform brigades classified as light and heavy units to medium ones. Also part of that effort was the relocation in the fall of 2008 of the 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, a Kiowa helicopter unit, from Fort Drum to Fort Stewart.

The 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, back at Fort Drum in fall 2009 after a yearlong deployment in Iraq, is scheduled for its next deployment, to Afghanistan, in the fall.