Fort McCoy’s fire and forestry officials and aircrew and Black Hawk helicopters with the Wisconsin National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 147th Aviation Regiment of Madison, Wis., teamed March 28 to complete prescribed-burn and conduct fire-suppression training in Training Area Bravo-26 on the installation’s South Post.

The event built on a continuing relationship between the Fort McCoy prescribed burn team and the Wisconsin National Guard training, said Forester Charles Mentzel with the Directorate of Public Works (DPW) Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch (NRB).

Mentzel said Fort McCoy is the ideal place to hold fire suppression training with the Black Hawks and the water buckets, which are also known as “Bambi” buckets.

“We are a military training base, have the facilities to support the helicopters, and the land base to do the training,” Mentzel said. “The water sources also are on the installation, so helicopters don’t have to cross any public roadways while carrying water to the fire.”

Prescribed burns are typically completed every spring and fall through a combined effort of several post organizations that make up the prescribed burn team. The post prescribed burn team includes personnel with the Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department; NRB; Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security; and the Colorado State University Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands, under a cooperative agreement to conduct natural resource management work on post.

Mentzel said the fire-suppression training has been going on at Fort McCoy for more than a decade, and it’s a great partnership of federal and state organizations working together to help each other.

“The relationship has evolved over time so much that we now have each other’s cell phone numbers for the coordination efforts,” Mentzel said. “Many times we need to chat on a Sunday before the training for last-minute changes due to weather or training conflicts for the mission on a Monday. We have also learned on the ground exactly what the helicopters/water bucket capabilities are, and we try to give them real-world issues to practice on. It is a fun, yet stressful day of burning and training.”

For the March 28 training, Big Sandy Lake on South Post was used for a water source for the Black Hawk crew to draw their water from. From there it was only a few miles to the drop area where a prescribed burn was taking place.

According to the Wisconsin National Guard, the bucket training allows Black Hawk flight crews to sharpen their skills. Understanding how to use the bucket can be used to potentially assist the people in a fire emergency, such as a wildfire response.

More prescribed burns will likely take place across Fort McCoy during spring 2022 and later in the year as conditions permit.

This press release was prepared and distributed by Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office.