UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, crews support training at Fort McCoy in September
The aircraft and crews are part of the aviation capabilities that help support military training at Fort McCoy, where service members from across the Total Force use the installation training areas, facilities, and support infrastructure to develop and sustain mission-essential skills.
Black Hawk helicopters regularly operate at Fort McCoy in support of unit training and installation training requirements, history shows. Previous training events have included aviation proficiency operations, support for ground-force training, specialized instruction and field exercises.
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The UH-60 Black Hawk is the Army’s utility tactical transport helicopter. According to the U.S. Army’s official fact sheet, its missions include air assault, general support, aeromedical evacuation, command and control, and special operations support during combat, stability and support operations.
The aircraft has substantially improved Army mobility through its troop-carrying capacity and cargo-lift capabilities, the fact sheet states. Developed to meet the Army’s requirement for a reliable utility helicopter capable of supporting air-mobile operations, the Black Hawk entered Army service in 1979 and has since become a mainstay of Army aviation.
Fort McCoy has hosted Black Hawk training on numerous occasions. Aircrews from the Wisconsin National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 147th Aviation Regiment, and the Minnesota National Guard’s 2nd Battalion, 147th Aviation Regiment, have conducted training operations at the installation in previous years.
In January 2026, a Minnesota National Guard Black Hawk aircrew supported training operations at Fort McCoy. Wisconsin National Guard Black Hawks also supported multiple training activities at the installation during 2026, including wildfire-suppression training in April and aviation operations in May.
Fort McCoy Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security officials have previously highlighted the installation’s extensive maneuver areas, aviation facilities and available airspace as important resources for realistic aviation training. Those resources allow aviation units to conduct operations while integrating with ground forces training across the installation.
Past training coordinators have also emphasized the importance of Fort McCoy’s facilities and its ability to support a variety of military training requirements.
During a 2022 fire-suppression training event involving Wisconsin National Guard Black Hawks, then-Fort McCoy Forester Charles Mentzel explained why the installation was well suited for helicopter training.
“We are a military training base, have the facilities to support the helicopters, and the land base to do the training,” Mentzel said. He also noted that having water sources on the installation allowed helicopters to conduct water-pickup training without crossing public roadways while carrying water.
Other training events have demonstrated how aviation assets can support learning beyond the aircrews themselves. During a May 2025 sling-load training event at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin National Guard Black Hawks supported Army Reserve Soldiers conducting instruction in cargo-handling and air-movement procedures.
Sgt. 1st Class Colter Lee Kincaid, who helped organize that training for the Army Reserve’s 13th Battalion, 100th Regiment, described the event as an opportunity to share knowledge across military occupational specialties and help Soldiers better understand how their individual responsibilities fit into larger operations.
Such training opportunities demonstrate the value of combining aviation assets, ground forces and installation support capabilities to meet a broad range of readiness requirements.
Fort McCoy’s motto beginning in 2026 is “Training the Total Force and Shaping the Future since 1909.” The installation’s mission: “Fort McCoy strengthens Total Force Readiness by serving as a training center, Mobilization Force Generation Installation, and Strategic Support Area enabling warfighter lethality to deploy, fight, and win our nation’s wars.”
And Fort McCoy’s vision is, “To be the premier training center supporting the most capable, combat-ready, and lethal armed forces.”
Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin. The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online athttps://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on DVIDS by visiting https://www.dvidshub.net/unit/FMPAO on DVIDS.
Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
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