The first of three-dozen upgraded and overhauled OH-58 Kiowa helicopters were scheduled to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border last month to boost the National Guard's support to the U.S. Border Patrol in Operation Jump Start.
Guard Bureau officials say the helicopters will significantly increase air surveillance as the mission to deter illegal immigrants from entering this country begins its second year.
The Mississippi Army National Guard's 1108th Aviation Classification Repair Activity Depot (AVCRAD) at the Trent Lott National Guard Training Complex in Gulfport, Miss., is refitting 22 of the Vietnam-era aircraft.
Three other Guard AVCRADs in California, Connecticut and Missouri are working on other Kiowas.
AVCRADs provide depot-level maintenance to Army Guard aircraft. The 1108th AVCRAD serves nine Southeastern states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Like a cat with nine lives, the Army's scout helicopter, introduced in 1968, keeps being reincarnated in the Guard.
After conducting final flight testing March 23 on one of the first Kiowas prepared for the border mission, Maj. Bille Miller, supervisory maintenance test pilot, explained the AVCRAD's value.
"The aircraft we just flew in was a 1971 model airframe. So, what's the return on investment?" he asked. "That aircraft has been flying for 36 years, and now it's been upgraded into a different configuration."
Unique to the Guard, the four AVCRADs have wrung decades more service out of the relatively low-cost Kiowas than the aircrafts' originally projected 20-year lives.
For the border mission, where the Kiowas will help boost the Border Patrol's ability to spot and interdict those who traffic in people and drugs, the aircraft are being refitted with a halfdozen 21st-century law enforcement devices.
The upgrades include radios that enable Guardsmen to communicate with Border Patrol agents and other civilian law enforcement officers; moving maps that show pilots and passengers exactly where they are; radar altimeters; night-vision equipment; and 2 million candlepower spotlights.
Higher skids will raise the height of the helicopter. The aircraft are also being rewired, fitted with new monitors and mechanically scrutinized from their rotor blades to their undercarriages.
"Upgrading it to these new systems is going to help the pilots tremendously," said Ronald Groce, a civilian contractor whose military career included surviving 13 helicopter crashes during two tours in Vietnam.
He rejoined the 1108th as a civilian after retiring from a 28-year Guard career.
"Everything we're doing enhances their flying capabilities," said Sgt. 1st Class Charlie Bond, an avionics mechanic.
For example, the moving map increases navigational accuracy by day and night. "A police officer can type in an address in the back seat or you can type it in the front seat and it will take you from point A to point B," Major Miller said.
During the journey, passengers can follow geographical and manmade features on computer map monitors.
The night-vision equipment makes the remarkably quiet helicopters useful at night. "We can ... see people moving because of their heat signatures," Major Miller said. "We can find people at night on the border."
The soldiers of the 1108th have juggled deployments to Operation Iraqi Freedom and recovery from Hurricane Katrina-which damaged troops' homes and the hangar where they work-in addition to their contribution to the border mission.
Up to 6,000 Guard soldiers and airmen are assisting the Border Patrol on the nation's Southwest border. President Bush announced the mission last May.
© 2007 National Guard Association of the United States Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Source: National Guard
