Seahawks game time salute
Flight of Black Hawks make pre-game fly over
By Jason Kaye, Northwest Guardian
Published: January 26th, 2006 01:30 PM
You have a gaggle of geese, a murder of crows and a flare of larks, but it took an Army mission to support the National Football League to clarify what you call a group of helicopters.
At some point Sunday, air traffic control at Seattle’s Boeing Field decided the flight of five Black Hawks on the west apron was a “herd” and when flight lead Chief Warrant Officer 4 called and requested to “stampede” to Qwest Field the excitement level was high.
The UH-60s were from the 4th Squadron, 6th Air Cavalry, part of the 66th Aviation Brigade at Fort Lewis, and were taking part in a fly over prior to the kick off of the NFC Championship game between the Seattle Seahawks and Carolina Panthers.
“I think it’s a great opportunity. It’s a great recruiting tool, and we’re all for supporting that, but it’s also a great training event for my guys. It allows us to do multi-ship operations, formation flight and lets us fly in Class B airspace. We don’t get an opportunity to do that a whole lot,” said the squadron commander.
The opportunity came after a request for support from the Seattle Recruiting Battalion and once the unit decided adequate resources were available the planning started.
“We’ve had people drawing names out of hats to see what the crews were going to be because everybody wanted to do it,” .
Putting together something of this magnitude presented some challenges. After nearly a month of daily rain, weather was a key issue. Then there was all the necessary coordination to fly in very controlled air space. The air above Qwest Field is known to pilots as Class B, which means that it is very busy. There are two major airports nearby; Seattle is an urban center; and on top of that, during the game Qwest Field was subject to temporary flight restrictions — a security precaution initiated after 9-11.
As a recruiting tool the fly over was already opening new doors of communication. who planned the operation, has already fielded a few requests for information.
“Honestly I’ve already had two calls from the recruiting battalion – ‘Hey we know you guys are doing the fly over and we’ve got some questions about getting guys into the flight program, can you help us out?’ I’m supposed to talk to one of the kids next week to try and get him to go Army aviation,”
Thursday, the crews flew to Seattle to make a few rehearsal runs over the stadium. Office workers in nearby high rises gathered by their windows to get a better look at the unusual sight of four Army helicopters hovering in the downtown area. By game day everything was timed down to the second and the Black Hawks were loaded up with lucky Soldiers chosen by their troop commanders for the ride over the stadium.
“For the Soldiers of the squadron it’s a great morale booster especially since it’s a televised national event. I guarantee these Soldiers are calling their parents and saying, ‘Mom, Dad watch the game because right before kickoff my squadron is going to fly over on national television.’ I would say that the majority of the Soldiers are very proud of that,” .
The flight left Fort Lewis and headed to Boeing Field, the King County regional airport, to top off fuel and be in a location just down the road from the stadium. At 3:15 p.m. the flight took off and swung around the north side of the city to wait for the call from their contact on the ground. When “Light Horse 1-0” keyed the mike all that could be heard was the roar of the 12th Man, more than 67,000 Seahawks fans, who were making it clear that Qwest Field is indeed the loudest stadium in the NFL. The call came that the flight was five minutes out, and regular countdown updates came every minute there after.
The UH-60s tightened up their formation and when the word came they went with authority, but just as the were nearing the stadium word from the ground was “wait 90 seconds”. The formation banked hard right after clarification and midway through their turn the call came to fly in again. The formation made its way over the stadium just after the national anthem — and also just after the network cut to a commercial. The jubilation of a successful run was tempered by disappointment at not appearing on the broadcast.
The commander was pleased with the work of the pilots.
“This was great training. These guys did what they were asked to do, and they did it well. It’s what they get paid to do,”.
“Now I’m headed home to watch the rest of the game,” he added.
I just want to make sure all of the hard work the outfit that put it together gets the appropriate credit.