NY Army Guard helicopter crews, DEC Rangers team up for helicopter firefighting training in New Windsor

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A New York Army National Guard UH-60 helicopter conducting fire bucket training in the Hudson River.

NEW WINDSOR, NEW YORK (04/21/2025) (readMedia)-- 6New York Army National Guard UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter crews based in Long Island will conduct firefighting training at Clear View Pond in New Windsor on April 22 and 23.

The Army aviators, who are based at Army Aviation Support Facility #1 in Ronkonkoma, will be teaming up with the Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers.

The helicopters will practice lifting water from the pond and then dumping it on simulated targets.

Eight Army National Guard aviators and 11 Rangers will be taking part in the training using two UH-60M helicopters. They expect to be flying after 11 a.m. each day.

During firefighting operations, the Army National Guard aircrews work with Rangers on the ground, and sometimes a Ranger in the aircraft. They work together to guide the Army Guard pilots onto the target.

The helicopter aircrew will operate from the New York State Police Aviation- Newburgh at Stewart International Airport.

The helicopter crews and Rangers will train to drop water from 660-gallon Bambi Buckets.

The collapsible buckets are hung underneath the helicopters. Each spring, Army National Guard helicopter crew members and maintenance personnel retrain on how to attach the buckets to Black Hawk helicopters and then practice picking up water and dumping it.

The training is necessary because a bucket full of water weighs two tons, and helicopter pilots need to practice flying with that additional weight hanging under their aircraft to fly safely in an emergency.

The New York Army National Guard employs helicopter firefighting equipment when local agencies request support through the New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.

On March 8, three UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters from Ronkonkoma worked together with a U.S. Air National Guard HH-60W Jolly Green II rescue helicopter to extinguish fires in the Long Island Pine Barrens near the East Fork.

Between November 11 and 20, 2024, New York Army National Guard aviators dropped 550,160 gallons of water on the 5,200-acre Jennings Creek fire in Delaware County to bring the blaze under control.

Both UH-60 M Black Hawk helicopters and Ch-47F Chinook heavy lift helicopters worked with firefighters to extinguish the blaze.

New York State Police helicopters provide initial firefighting capabilities for the state. The Army National Guard helicopters, which carry a bigger bucket, and are called in for heavier fires.