COLUMBUS, Ohio — I grab my barf bag and walk outside into the sun.
It’s loud.
I have something in my ears that one of the sergeants called an EarPro. The crew chief waves me in. I’ve never flown in a Black Hawk Helicopter before, but that’s about to change.
“Good morning, everybody,” a sergeant said. “You're going on a flight today.”
I’m at the Army Aviation Support Facility No. 2, near Columbus, Ohio. They just gave me a safety briefing.
Fly with me in the video below:
“Stay in a single file line,” the sergeant said. “The blades are going to be spinning.”
He tells us not to put our feet under the seat. If we crash, he says, they'll be crushed.
‘It’s too loud for your camera’
Growing up in North College Hill, Skyler Vaughn was a cheerleader. It’s actually part of the reason she enlisted in Ohio's National Guard almost nine years ago.
“I never was into joining the military,” Vaughn said. “It scared me.”
Now, the sergeant trains younger soldiers. And here at Rickenbacker International Airport, she helps fuel the helicopter she’s standing in front of.
“It’ll be way too loud for your camera,” Vaughn said. “But I’ll show you.”
She walks around the Black Hawk helicopter and pops off the fuel cover. When they're filling up, she tells me she can’t hear the crew chief. They often play rock, paper, scissors until they’re done.
She’s standing under the helicopter's rotor now, and she points up.
“The blades, you see how close they are,” Vaughn said. “There's a lot of adrenaline. It's very rewarding when you see them take off safely.”
When she first considered a military career, she’d never heard of the National Guard. And before she enlisted, she was someone who thought fueling equipment was not an important job.
She knows better now.
“They need all hands on deck to make something like that take off into the sky,” Vaughn said.
'When the governor calls, we answer'
First, the colonel jokes about the PowerPoint behind him.
“It’s good Army slides,” said Col. Jon Stewart, assistant adjutant general for the Army in Ohio’s National Guard. “Because there’s lots of pictures.”
Stewart is giving a briefing before the briefing. His job is to explain what the Ohio National Guard does.
“When the governor calls us, we answer,” Stewart said. “People are in the guard because they want to serve their communities.”
The colonel tells us more than 1,000 military personnel are currently deployed overseas. And Stewart says he was the first guard member in East Palestine two years ago when a train carrying hazardous materials derailed, forcing the evacuation of residents.
The Ohio National Guard is often called to help — even outside the state. And for a lot of those missions, they use a Black Hawk helicopter.
'You probably can't hear this'
When we're flying above Ohio Stadium, in order for my co-worker to pick up my voice, I grab my microphone and cup it in my hands. It’s usually pinned on the inside of my shirt.
The door beside me stays open the entire flight.
“You probably can’t hear this,” I yelled. “It's loud."
Before we take off, I need help buckling in.
“This is my first time on a Black Hawk helicopter," I said, holding my motion sickness bag. “But for a lot of people, this is their job — to help support the community.”
People like Vaughn, who joined the military even though most of her friends told her she wouldn't succeed.
"I think that was a big reason why I wanted to," Vaughn said. "Because I could help people who live here feel safe and secure."
Back on the ground, I step off the helicopter and more uniformed officials wave me back inside. My co-worker asks how the flight was.
“Loud,” I said, still holding my puke bag. “I didn’t throw up.”
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