Jan. 30—Two C-17s landed Monday afternoon at Helena Regional Airport to shuttle 15 members of the Montana National Guard 83rd Civil Support Team, trucks and other equipment for a five-day training mission at a Naval Air Station in Florida.
They came from the New York National Guard with the first aircraft landing about 2 p.m.
The team specializes in supporting civil authorities at incidents that involve chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear high-yield explosives. It advises on response actions and requests for more state and federal military forces. Its transportation unit includes a command vehicle operations trailer, a communications vehicle, a laboratory vehicle and several general purpose vehicles.
Various units have supported the Boston Marathon, Super Bowl 49, a papal visit, a state of the union address and other special security events. They are federally resourced, trained and sustained, but state controlled, officials said.
Members receive more than 650 hours of hazmat and high-tech training from agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Energy, the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency. Advance teams deploy within 90 minutes and the main group within three hours.
Master Sgt. Michael Touchette, of the Montana National Guard Public Affairs Office, said these kinds of exercises help several different guard units with the training, noting not only does the Montana unit get training but the C-17 crews get much-needed flight training as well.
He said units from South Dakota and Florida were participating in the training as well. And he said the C-17s come to Helena for Guard business once a year or less.
The Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is 174 feet long and has a wingspan of 169 feet. It is capable of rapid strategic delivery of troops and cargo to main operating bases or directly to forward bases in the deployment area.
The maximum payload capacity is 170,900 pounds and its maximum gross takeoff weight is 585,000 pounds.
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