5-159th Aviation Battalion
The heavy helicopter assets of the Army Reserve, the CH-47D Chinooks, represent one of the core competencies of the Army Reserve. They are currently organized into two battalions, each consisting of a Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC) and two line companies.
The 5th Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment is part of the 244th Aviation Brigade. The 5th Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment, is headquartered at Ft. Eustis, VA, with HHC and B Company there and A Company at Ft. Lewis, WA.
The 5th Battalion, 159th Aviation was constituted 16 November 1987 in the Army Reserve as the 5th Battalion, 159th Aviation, and activated (less Company A) at Fort Meade, Maryland (Company A concurrently allotted to the Regular Army and activated in Germany). Location of Headquarters changed 30 September 1995 to Fort Eustis, Virginia. Company A inactivated 15 October 1997 in Germany; concurrently withdrawn from the Regular Army and allotted to the Army Reserve.
In the past the Park Service had turned to Fort Lewis' 214th Aviation Regiment for vital air support. But in early 1998, the Army disbanded the unit to save money. The reservists, whose normal duties are troop and equipment transport, stepped in to fill the gap. Members of the Fort Lewis Army Reserve unit -- A Company, 5th Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment -- learned the unique tricks of their trade: perching a 50-foot Chinook on an icy saddle at 10,000 feet, bucking the gales that roar up the mountain's ridge lines, and flying search patterns above crevasse-scarred glaciers, looking for signs of life - or death.
During the summer of 2000 wildfires caused havoc to lives and routines throughout the West. This havoc included almost canceling an important geological survey in Oregon. Coming to the rescue was an Army Reserve helicopter unit that is quite used to coming to the rescue. On July 20, 2000, the National Park Service, in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey, announced plans to conduct sonar mapping of Crater Lake at Crater Lake National Park, Ore. Crater Lake is the nation's deepest lake. It is accessible only by a one-mile long footpath from the rim of the crater down to the lake's surface. To conduct the mapping, an 11,200-pound research boat would be airlifted onto the lake. That was the plan but then the wildfires intervened.
The fire situation in the intermountain west only got worse as the days ticked by. By July 26, more than 27 new major fires were raging in the West. It became clearthat all of the commercial helicopter companies would be tied up on the fires. Help came from Company A, 5th Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment, U.S. Army Reserve, based at Fort Lewis, Wash. This unit knows how to respond quickly. Besides providing heavy lift support for active and reserve component units at Fort Lewis, Company A also has the high-altitude search and rescue mission for the Northwest United States. As recently as July 24, of the same week it was called on to help at Crater Lake, a CH-47D Chinook and crew from Company A flew to the 12,000-foot level of Mount Rainier to rescue a man injured in a rock avalanche.
A Chinook and its crew airlifted the research vessel onto the lake's surface on July 27. The sonar mapping began the next day. Lifting the boat onto the lake looked remarkably similar to a scene from the movie, "Apocalypse Now", where an Army helicopter lifted a Navy patrol boat onto a Vietnamese river, which was actually a river in the Philippines where the movie was filmed. Sometimes life does imitate art.
