Pvt. Patrick Hernandez, 1st Battalion, 5th Artillery Regeiment. 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, practices launching a RQ-11B Raven. (By Pamela Redford, Fort Riley Public Affairs)

A mobile training team from Fort Benning, Ga., arrived at Fort Riley to teach soldiers on how to fly one of the smallest unmanned aerial systems used by the U.S. Army - the RQ-11B Raven.

With two military instructors and two civilian contractors, the team took “Big Red One” soldiers through a two-week operator class, followed by one week of master training.

“We’re here to train Raven operators and provide Fort Riley with a valuable asset in the war on terror,” said Staff Sgt. Jeremy Galusha, MTT instructor, 2nd Battalion 29th Infantry Regiment, 197th Infantry Brigade, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.

Galusha and his team stayed at Douthit Range Complex’s barracks and used the Mock Airfield, which is equipped with a control tower, terminal and hangar; a 72-by-800-foot runway; an unmanned aerial systemm, or UAS, classroom; latrines and telephones.

But not all of the students will make it to the master training level, Galusha said. 

“The challenge is to absorb the information that gets put out. There is a lot of information in a short period of time. It’s death by PowerPoint, but they have to know all of the emergency procedures in the air and be able to react. There’s so much that can go wrong,” he said.

The RQ-11B Raven is a hand-launched UAS powered by a lithium-ion battery. 
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