MT Air National Guard Visits Wokal

Wokal Field, the Glasgow-Valley County Airport, played host to an unusual visitor Aug. 25. A C130H plane touched down, part of the Montana Air National Guard's effort to improve community relations across the state and improve their domestic operational capability in Montana.

The 100,000 pound cargo plane landed just before 11 a.m., and taxied to a position just outside the airport building in front of an excited crowd. Recruiters set up a station out front and an airman answered a number of questions from onlookers about where they were from, what they do and what it is like to serve.

Parents and children lined up for temperature screenings in order to be allowed out onto the tarmac to experience the plane for themselves. The plane is capable of carrying a payload of 36,500 pounds, 92 passengers, or 680 square hay bales.

Glasgow was the first city to play host to the Montana Air National Guard 120th Airlift Wing and the 219th RED HORSE (Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers) Squadron. The airmen made no secret of the fact that a good portion of their intent regarding community relations was to improve their recruiting and retention numbers. RED HORSE in particular was looking to recruit more members from the eastern side of the state.

The unit brought out the big guns, including their commander, Brigadier General Buel J. Dickson and a number of their top brass in an effort to build relationships with local government and community leaders. They also told an assembled group at their requisite power point briefing that a number of the brass would be traveling up to Boeing Field to build relationships with Montana Aviation Research, Co., a subsidiary of Boeing. The unit hopes to be able to use the runway at St. Marie for training purposes, noting some similarities to Afghanistan.

At the power point briefing, members of the unit addressed Valley County leaders and representatives. Mary Armstrong was present on behalf of the Valley County Commissioners. Rick Seiler was there as the Disaster Management Coordinator, and his granddaughter, Tisa Seiler, attended on behalf the Valley County Health Department. Lucas Locke, airport manager, was on hand, as was Clay Berger and pilots of STAT Air.

Representatives of the Montana Air National Guard outlined their missions, answering to the governor of Montana in state emergencies or to the president of the United States in times of crisis. The public relations mission last week was part of their effort to test out runways across the state to see which ones they would be able to land at in a time of need. Part of the unit's mission would be to deliver critical resources in a time of need. In fact, the statistic on how many hay bales could fit on the C130H came from an actual training exercise when the wing was asked if they could deliver feed to starving cattle in the midst of a blizzard.

Colonel Rob Effinger told the assembled group that currently the Montana Air National Guard is working to distribute supplies across the state. "There are four warehouses in Helena chock full of PPE, hand sanitizer and school supplies to go out to the schools," he said, though none of those supplies were in the cargo hold when the plane landed in Glasgow. There is a chance they will make a return visit though nothing definite was in the works.

The intent of the Air National Guard is to make the visit and recruiting attempt an annual event. The unit has a memorandum of understanding with the Glasgow-Valley County Airport detailing how many times per year they are allowed to utilize the runways here.

Col. Effinger and other leaders from Great Falls elaborated on what their units do, deploying internationally and nationally to respond to crises, natural and other. They touted the education and career opportunities available in the Montana Guard as opposed to active duty service, such as recruits getting their first choice designators 100 percent of the time, with some caveats.

Given that the Montana Air National Guard has several more allowable landings at Wokal Field, there remains the possibility that anyone who missed the unique appearance of the cargo aircraft will have another chance in the future.