Soldiers and civilians who work on Utah’s reserve battalion of Apache attack helicopters were guaranteed their jobs last week, when the Army announced Utah’s National Guard was among four units chosen to retain the aircraft, while four other reserve battalions lost their helicopters to active duty.
The decision saved 403 Utah jobs, including 143 full-time positions, that have been in limbo as military and government officials negotiated what to do with the helicopters — and where to keep them, Utah National Guard Lt. Col. Ricky Smith said.
“It’s extremely bad news for some states, and great news for the other states,” he said, comparing the loss to a “massive layoff.”
The announcement comes years after reserve battalions in Arizona, Idaho, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Utah learned they were at risk as part of the cost-saving 2014 Aviation Restructuring Initiative.
The initiative called for reserve AH-64 Apache helicopters to be redistributed to active-duty units to replace their now-retired scout helicopter, the OH-58 Kiowa, Smith said.
A report from the National Commission on the Future of the Army followed the initiative in 2016 and recommended reducing the reserve ranks from eight to four, instead of redistributing all the aircraft, Smith said.
Army Secretary Mark Esper ultimately took the report’s recommendation last Friday, choosing to keep reserve battalions in Utah, North Carolina and South Carolina, in addition to a battalion that splits its time between Texas and Mississippi.
Utah National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 211th Aviation Regiment will receive an additional seven Apaches as part of the reorganization, giving it 18 aircraft total. The four chosen battalions will each maintain 18 helicopters.
Once the battalions are slated for deployment, they will receive six more helicopters and reach the number required to be battle-ready, Smith said.
Retired Brig. Gen. Roy Robinson, who is president of the National Guard Association of the United States, said in a news release that training battalions with a reduced number of helicopters affects readiness.
“This means Guard Apache battalions will never have enough aircraft to train the way they are supposed to fight. And each would have to borrow six aircraft to go to war,” Robinson said in a news release.
The four battalions were chosen based on several metrics, such as how much the aircraft are flown and how they are maintained, in addition to their location and how often they had been deployed, Smith said.
Utah, which has had a reserve battalion of Apaches since 1991, stood out, Smith said, because of the “big pool of highly qualified, smart people” who work on the helicopters.
“Other battalions in different states in different locations have a real hard time recruiting qualified people,” he said.
Location also played a role. Not only does Utah have terrain similar to what soldiers would see if deployed to the Middle East, it also has the Utah Test and Training Range, the largest restricted airspace for military training in the contiguous U.S.
Chief Warrant Officer Ryan Eyre, who trains helicopter pilots with the 97th Aviation Troop Command, said the decision brought relief for the battalion and some additional stress, because now the battalion faces more training and possible deployments.
Regardless, Eyre said, after years of uncertainty, it was good to get some closure.
During the flux period, when reserve battalions knew their jobs were on the line, Eyre said he’d seen a number of people leave the National Guard for the promise of a stable job.
“Dangling a carrot in front of somebody, sooner or later they’re going to go find a carrot they can eat,” Eyre said.
Now, with some stability, the battalion can get on with its mission, he said.
Smith said updated readiness orders didn’t accompany the Army’s recent decision, though he noted, “It will be coming.”
