COVINGTON, Ky. - When a UH-60 Blackhawk comes thundering in, the rotor wash sends anything not tied down either in the air or flying across the ground.
That was Lesson No. 1 of the day for the Covington Fire Department, and it was apparent the moment the helicopter came thundering in to land early Thursday at Bill Cappel Youth Sports Complex in Latonia - the landing launched garbage cans, dust and debris across the parking lot.
For the video, see the City’s Facebook page at
HERE
About a dozen members of the Covington Fire Department were on hand for landing zone prep-and-protocol training conducted by the Kentucky Army National Guard - officially Detachment 1, Charlie Co., 2nd Battalion, 238th Aviation MEDEVAC - based in Frankfort.
Covington Fire Chief Mark Pierce said the training was important given the potential for the National Guard to send helicopters to help in the event of a disaster in Covington.
“The National Guard has resources and equipment we could use, whether it’s helping to evacuate injured residents after a tornado or scooping up water and putting out a brush fire that gets out of control in somewhere like Devou Park,” Pierce said. “We have to know how to prepare a landing zone to keep both Guard personnel and people on the ground safe.”
In addition to a wide array of in-state missions assigned by Kentucky’s governor, the MEDEVAC detachment has been around the world on behalf of presidents’ orders. It, for example, was deployed to the Middle East in 2013-14 and to the Virgin Islands in 2017 after a couple of hurricanes for search-and-rescue and life-saving missions.
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