NY Army Guard aviators team up with Forest Rangers for aerial firefighting training on Hudson River

Schuylerville, NY (09/22/2026) — New York Army National Guard UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter crews honed their ability to fight wildfires with massive water-filled buckets over the Hudson River north of Albany on Friday\, Sept. 18.

Nineteen aviators practiced lifting 560 gallons of water from the river and then dumping it on simulated targets downstream.

The Army aircrews, based at the Army Aviation Support Facility at Albany International Airport in Latham, teamed up with six New York Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers for the training.

During an actual firefighting mission, the National Guard aircrews work with the rangers.

A ranger in the helicopter talks to a ranger on the ground to move the aircraft into the right position, said Col. Paul Bailie, the commander of the 42nd Combat Aviation Brigade and the State Army Aviation Officer.

"We have been doing this training with the New York Army National Guard since 2023, "said Forest Ranger Lt. John Gullen. "We try to do it annually, and this happens to be our second time this year."

"We absolutely love cross-training with the Army National Guard; they have phenomenal crew chiefs and pilots," he added.

The rangers and Army aviators used Garnsey's Airport, a grass runway in Schuylerville, as their base of operations.

Helicopter crews and rangers train to drop water from 560-gallon Bambi Buckets, the trademarked name of the collapsible water holders.

The collapsible buckets are hung underneath the helicopters.

Each spring and fall, Army National Guard helicopter crew members and maintenance personnel retrain on how to attach the buckets to Black Hawk helicopters and then practice picking up water and dumping it.

"We do two iterations of training in the spring and fall. All the rangers that will be on the ground fighting forest fires with us are here training with us today," Bailie said.

"We work together now so we know how to operate when there is an emergency. The rangers are a great asset and the capabilities they bring to the table are huge," Bailie added.

The training is necessary because a bucket full of water weighs two tons, and helicopter pilots need to practice flying with that additional weight hanging under their aircraft to fly safely in an emergency, he explained. The New York Army National Guard employs helicopter firefighting equipment when local agencies request support through the New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.

The last time Army Guard-and Air Guard-air crews deployed to fight fires was on Long Island on March 8, 2025. A fire that started in a backyard barbecue burned 600 acres.

The three New York Army Guard Black Hawks made 43 bucket drops, with each crew flying for three hours and dropping a total of 28,380 gallons of water.

Meanwhile, a New York Air Guard HH-60W rescue helicopter made 28 bucket drops, putting 14,100 gallons of water on the blaze.

New York Army National Guard Aviators from Long Island and Rochester also conducted fire bucket training between September 16 and 18. The Long Island air crews used Crestview Lake in Newburgh as their target, while the Rochester aviators trained at Hamlin Beach on Lake Ontario.

The Forest Rangers lead fire response, assessing and managing fire operations, Gullen explained. This training ensures that rangers know the capabilities of the Army Guard helicopters.

The rangers become the experts who bridge the gap between firefighters on the ground and the specialized firefighting tactics used with the Army aviators and their Bambi Buckets, Guillen said.

Media Attachments