In addition to McEntire Airbase outside Columbia, pilots in the South Carolina Army National Guard can now come to Greenville to fine-tune their flying skills.
Completed in February 2014 and designed to support the training and maintenance needs of aircrew members and maintainers, the South Carolina National Guard Army Aviation Support Facility at Donaldson Field sits on 34 acres and will sustain 78 full-time military technicians along with 200 traditional guardsmen.
At an approximate cost of $26 million, the 110,000-square-foot facility was funded by the Defense Authorization Bill for military construction and will include two hangars, supply, storage, allied shops, administration, classrooms, locker rooms and an emergency aviation operations center.
Lt. Col. Charles Lewis said the facility would house UH-72A Lakota aircraft and the CH-47F Chinook aircraft.
“If there should be another Katrina-type event, these aircraft will perform the rescues,” he said.
The Lakota is a light utility helicopter and has been in service since 2007, and the Chinook is a multi-mission transport helicopter and has been in service since 1958.
When pilots leave flight school, they only have a basic understanding of the aircraft, Lewis said.
At the support facility in Greenville, adjacent to Donaldson Field at the South Carolina Technology and Aviation Center (SC-TAC), pilots will learn tactics, techniques and procedures, he said. All of the maintenance on the aircraft will be done in Greenville as well.
Lewis said three-quarters of the facility’s members are part-time National Guardsmen.
“Flying is a perishable skill, and young pilots need to be in an aircraft at least two times each week,” he said.
The National Guard had outgrown its facility near Columbia and chose Greenville because of the Upstate’s technical expertise, Lewis said.
The Greenville facility will allow aviation soldiers in the South Carolina Army National Guard to maintain readiness while providing improved coverage of the state when responding to natural or man-made disasters, he said. The Greenville support facility will also play a future role in the developing Southeastern Army Aviation Training Site.
The site will serve as a regional training center for employment of aviation assets in civilian support operations and inter-agency partnering, Lewis said.
“We want to develop a training center where units similar to ours will come to train,” he said. “They will come from all over the United States to this location.”
