On Friday, Oct. 7th, amid the late morning dew Carroll College received a visit from the sky. Just after eleven o’clock on the practice soccer field, above Nelson Stadium, a CH-47 descended upon the campus.
The CH-47 Chinook created waves of dust that blasted the surrounding area as passers-by stopped to watch the scene. Then with mechanical elegance, it landed upon the field. As the crowd grew and watched the helicopter, the Army ROTC Cadets of Carroll stood in formation.
After several minutes the blades of the CH-47 came to a rest and visitors were allowed to approach. Students and other bystanders were allowed to tour the helicopter.
The helicopter was piloted by Chief Warrant Officer Coleman. Coleman has been flying for four years and concluded a tour of duty in Iraq in 2020.
The second pilot of this mechanical monster was 2nd Lieutenant Sponholz. Sponhloz is a Carroll graduate and has been flying for about 5 months.
“I heard we were flying to Carroll and I knew I was gonna be the one to do it. I really wanted to come to see the cadets and fly them out for FTX,” said Sponholz.
The crew chief of the helicopter is SGT Barnhill. She explained that the helicopter is part of the 189th Aviation Regiment based out of the Army Aviation Support Facility(AASF) at the Helena Airport. The fleet consists of six CH-47s and their missions include passenger transportation, fire fighting, and rescue operations.
Its mission on this day was to transport cadets from the Carroll College ROTC program to their biannual FTX, or Field Training Exercise. FTX took place at Lubrecht Experimental Forest just east of Missoula.
After roughly an hour of allowing visitors to view the aircraft the Cadets loaded inside, visitors were pushed back to a safe distance and the helicopter ascended into the sky.
