FORT PICKETT, Va. –
Virginia National Guard Soldiers assigned to the Sandston-based 2nd Battalion, 224th Aviation Regiment, 29th Infantry Division and members of the Fort Pickett Fire and Emergency Services conduct water bucket training Aug. 21, 2025, at Fort Pickett, Virginia.
The training is conducted at regular intervals to keep the aviators up to speed on water bucket operations. Usually, the flight crews lower the buckets from their Black Hawk helicopters into a lake or river to draw water before releasing it over a pre-specified target.
This training cycle provided a different focus, with aviators dipping into a portable, self-supporting water tank.
The tank, which holds up to 14,000 gallons of water, provides significant advantages in wildfire fighting in areas that might not have a nearby water source.
“The use of portable tanks allows aircrews to pull water from a closer spot to the fire which in turn, reduces the time between water drops as well as allows crews to complete more water dumps on a single tank of gas,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jason Grace, the 2-224th’s wild land fire fighting team manager.
During the training, flight crews practiced positioning over the tank and drawing water from it into their 660-gallon water buckets, a more challenging operation than extracting water from a lake or pond, given the tank’s relatively smaller footprint.
“The portable water tanks are much smaller compared to a pond,” said grace. “The portable tank has a diameter of 14 feet, where most ponds are hundreds of yards in diameter. So, the portable tank requires much higher precision flying and coordination from the aircrews.”
The Virginia National Guard most recently supported firefighting operations on state active duty during wildfires in the western part of the state in late 2023. After Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency, two Black Hawks deployed to Madison and Patrick County, making more than 50 drops totaling more than 36,000 gallons of water to help suppress the fires. Soldiers also provided firefighting support on the ground. Read more about that mission at https://vngpao.info/eu2zuszs.
Read more about the 2nd Battalion, 224th Aviation Regiment at https://vngpao.info/