Iowa Army National Guard Soldiers with Detachment 1, Company C, and Detachment 3, Company D, 2nd Battalion, 211th General Support Aviation Battalion, conduct hoist training and air maneuver operations with members of the 186th Military Police Company in September 2025. The training took place as the aviation units neared the end of their year-long deployment to Kosovo in support of NATO’s Kosovo Force peacekeeping mission, known as Operation Joint Guardian. During the deployment, the 33 Soldiers supported multinational operations with three UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, trained more than 2,000 NATO personnel in air medevac procedures, executed nine air medevac missions, and dropped over 73,000 gallons of water in response to a large-scale forest fire. (U.S. Army National Guard video by Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jared Fulk and 1st Sgt. Jason Everett)
Iowa National Guard aviation unit wraps up Kosovo deployment