Page 4 - Task Force Phoenix News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

It really doesn’t take long into my morning coffee to begin drifting back to Afghanistan. Especially these days.

By Sgt. 1st Class Ryan Sheldon, 40th Combat Aviation Brigade | June 9, 2021 Estimated reading time 9 minutes, 34 seconds. For Staff Sgt. Brianna Pritchard, an Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter mechanic from Anchorage, Alaska, it all started with a dream to become an Olympian and a little bit of genetics. Staff Sgt. Brianna Pritchard, an Army Nation Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter mechanic from Anchorage, Alaska, in front of a Task Force Phoenix UH-60 Black Hawk medieval helicopter at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq. Pritchard is training to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics in b...

First, it was Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 155 mph and pure destruction as the storm's eye passed directly over Tyndall...

The soldiers of Task Force Phoenix faced several worst-case scenarios during a Culminating Training Exercise (CTE) over 10 days in April 2021. Indirect fire attacks, downed aircraft, improvised explosive device (IED) attacks on ground vehicles — everything but the kitchen sink was thrown at them. This occurred while the task force was executing typical aviation tasks its soldiers will perform during an upcoming deployment overseas, such as VIP flights and Forward Arming and Refueling Point (FARP) operations. “The CTE prepared us not only for the mission we’ll be expected to per...

The wounded and search for four missing comrades. after using aviation support to mark locations of fallen and wounded comrades, it became clear that ground recovery of the fallen was required due to heavy enemy fire on helicopter landing zones. captain swenson's team returned to the kill zone another time in a humvee. captain swenson voluntarily exited the vehicle, exposing himself to enemy fire, to locate and recover three fallen marines and one navy fallen corpsman. he rallied his teammates and effectively disruptded the enemy's assault. captain william d. swenson's extraordinary heroism ab...