Tennessee Guardsmen deployed to east Tennessee wildfires

At the request of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, the Tennessee National Guard have provided four UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and crews from Knoxville’s 1-230th Assault Helicopter Battalion to support wildfire response in the national park.

The Tennessee National Guard helicopters departed from McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base with buckets to drop hundreds of gallons of water on wildfires.

Each aircraft picked up water from nearby water sources and transported it directly to the needed area. The aircrews delivered more than 40 bucket loads of water in one afternoon alone, totaling nearly 8,000 gallons.

The aircraft are continuing their support of firefighting efforts for as long as needed.

Recently, the Arizona National Guard also sent Black Hawks to support firefighting in California.