Army Air Reaches 65,000 on Holloman Published May 8, 2008 By Airman 1st Class John D. Strong II 49th FW/PA HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- The Army Air Branch, Range Operations Directorate pilots recently reached a milestone by flying more than 65,000 flying hours continuing the legacy of great tenant units stationed on Holloman. The Army Air Branch is part of White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. The mission of the Army Air Branch is to apply support for testing on and off the range for the Department of Defense, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, contractors and foreign governments. The Army Air Branch presence here goes back to 1957. The unit currently has more than 25 civilian members, consisting of six pilots, five mechanics, three flight engineers, one operations coordinator, two maintenance supervisors, two avionics technicians, one supply technician, one life support technician, one administrative assistant and one quality assurance technician Reaching 65,000 flying hours is a monumental achievement and with the all the experience the unit has it's just another proud accomplishment. With all of the pilots formerly serving in either the National Guard, Army Reserve, Air Force or Army active duty the flight experience alone shows the distinguished level the Army Air Branch operates on, as does the maintainers who average over 30 years of experience. "In order for a single pilot to achieve 65,000 if they flew eight hours a day, five days a week it would take over 30 years," said retired Air Force Lt. Col. Jon D. Edwards, chief of Army Air Branch Range Operations and Range Control. The colonel said the lowest amount of flying time one of their pilots has still adds up to over 5,600 hours while the most amount of flying time another pilot has is over 14,000 hours. The Army Air Branch uses the UH-1H helicopter and the C-12 plane in their missions here. They average over 1,400 hours a year in the two aircraft and every pilot is qualified on both of them, with some pilots flying both aircraft in the same day occasionally for various missions. One important aspect of the mission the Army Air Branch performs here is safety on the range. They also perform search and recovery after launches that move outside of the designated test area. Mr. Dean Hayden a flight engineer of the Army Air Branch Range Operations and Range Control, said their unit has had some unique opportunities. "We have participated in filming Transformers, we've flown the secretary of the Army and the Air Force, participated in special missions that have helped develop new weapon systems and pretty much every missile system that has come along has been tested through us", he said. With an outstanding flying record and an impressive résumé of missions safety is a very important aspect that stays in the mind of the unit, said the colonel. "We pretty much think of safety everyday, we go by the book and it's a lot of team work involved", said Mr. Damon Howe, an aircraft mechanic for the Army Air Branch Range Operations and Range Control. "We understand that we have to fix the aircraft that support our armed forces members out there on the frontline fighting for us." After achieving 65,000 hours the only goal the Army Air Branch has left is to continue completing the mission while doing it as safely as possible. "Our goal for every operation we fly is to keep it as safe as possible and just to get the mission done" said the colonel. "Our team is highly capable and every time we are working on range it's going to be a safe operation. We know you don't get good judgment with out experience and experience breeds good judgment. I have a lot of faith in our team in our ability to execute good judgment so that every flight is safe and is performed as professionally as possible."