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Special ops aviation unit traverses Bermuda Triangle en route to new home

Army News Service

Release Date: 8/28/2003

By Spc. Kyle J. Cosner

NAVAL STATION ROOSEVELT ROADS, Puerto Rico (Army News Service, Aug. 28, 2003) -- Under the eerie green glow of night-vision goggles, three special operations aircrews took to the Puerto Rican skies early, leaving behind a tropical paradise and a five-year legacy of successful operations in Central and South America.

The MH-60 Black Hawks of Company D, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, moved to Hunter Army Airfield, Ga., because it's uncertain how much longer Roosevelt Roads will remain open, said Maj. James Myrick, the company commander and a Black Hawk pilot.

"I think that there are going to be many benefits gained by the unit and the special operations community by us being here (in Georgia)," said Myrick.

On a flight route that zigzagged through the infamous Bermuda Triangle, the three helicopters made their way through the Caribbean region, making stops in the British West Indies, the Bahamas and Florida en route to their final destination.

While forward deployed in the Caribbean region, the company served as the tip of the regiment's spear for operations in the U.S Southern Command's area of responsibility.

But with the future of the Roosevelt Roads installation uncertain the decision to relocate was made proactively to ensure the unit's mission readiness, Myrick said.

"All levels of the chain of command facilitated this, from battalion to regiment and up through (the U.S. Army Special Operations Command), and that really made it go much smoother than I thought it would," he said.

Prior to its arrival in Puerto Rico, the unit had been located in Panama but was forced to relocate in 1998 under similar circumstances.

Blue skies, blue waters and the exotic locales along the flight route made for what Myrick described as one of the more pleasurable missions he's undertaken in recent memory.

"I think it went extremely well and extremely smooth," he said of the flight.

While in Puerto Rico, Myrick said most of the unit's missions involved providing aviation assets to both ground and maritime Special Operations Forces, as well as bilateral support to host countries throughout the region.

Those missions, Myrick said, will not change, despite their new home on U.S. soil.

Administratively, the company had always been attached to 3rd Bn., 160th SOAR, but the detachment will remain under the operational control of Special Operations Command - South, the Special Operations component of the U.S. Southern Command.

(Editor's note: Sgt. Kyle J. Cosner is a journalist with the U.S. Army Special Operations Command Public Affairs Office at Fort Bragg, N.C.)