1-223d Aviation Regiment conducts Spouse Wings Day

Official Statements

• Aviation Center of Excellence, November 13: “The 1st Battalion, 223d Aviation Regiment conducted a Spouse Wings Day event for military spouses at Fort Rucker Nov. 10. The event provided multiple hands-on opportunities for 15 participating spouses to learn more about the work their Soldiers do every day. The day’s activities included working as a team to hook up a sling load during a CH-47 Chinook helicopter demonstration at Knox Army Heliport. They also learned more about the door gunner’s role in the Nonrated Crewmember Manned Module (NCM3) simulator.”

• Aviation Center of Excellence, November 13: “Spouses took the controls in a UH-72 flight training simulations device as they participated in a simulated mission to deliver additional security guards to a location to help suppress an uprising. The event concluded with a luncheon and an opportunity to hear from battalion leaders and receive their “Honorary Army Aviator” certificates/ spouse wings at Cairns Army Airfield. Lt. Col. Andrew M. Bartlett, 1st Battalion, 223d Aviation Regiment commander, said he was happy to see everyone sign up for the event.”

• Aviation Center of Excellence, November 13: “Thank you for coming out on the eve of Veterans Day. We spend a lot of time thanking veterans, and as I get longer in the tooth doing this, I realize today was a snippet for you of the fun stuff that service members get to go out and do day to day. You saw that guy hanging from the bottom of the Chinook, right?” he said.”

• Aviation Center of Excellence, November 13: “Thank you for getting out there rigging those loads, shooting all the bad guys in the gunnery trainer, and saving or enabling the prisoners - I’ve heard a little bit of both." Event organizer 1st Lt. Joseph Gonzales explained that during the half-day event aviation Soldiers took the lead to demonstrate the skills, including how to do hand and arm signals to communicate with the helicopter crew and how to properly rig the load on the ground as they prepared for the helicopter’s arrival.”

• Aviation Center of Excellence, November 13: “At the NCM3 simulator, crew chiefs were on hand to call out targets during an opportunity for spouses to shoot the M240 machine gun. At Warrior Hall instructor pilots helped the spouses conduct the mission in the flight training simulators.”

• Aviation Center of Excellence, November 13: “The event organizers agreed on the bottom line of the event, which honored the vital role spouses play in Army readiness. “I just hope they have a really good time with their spouses, that they get a chance to really appreciate what aviation is as a whole, " said Gonzales. “The goal is just to give the spouses a fun experience,” said Maj. Christopher D. Matteson, battalion operations officer.”

• Aviation Center of Excellence, November 13: “For Monique C. Bernard, whose husband, Staff. Sgt. James T. Bernard, a flight engineer, has been stationed at Fort Rucker since 2023, it was her first spouse wings day here, and her favorite part was the sling load.”

• Aviation Center of Excellence, November 13: “My husband’s close friend was hanging out of the Chinook, so when he says, ‘I’ve got to go do the sling’, it kind of put two and two together. It gives us insight. Our husbands tell us things but we don’t know what they’re talking about, so today gave me a visual. When he says I’m going to gunnery, now I’m like, oh ok, I know what you’re doing. We get to see different parts of their lives on the daily. That was excellent,” Bernard said.”

• Aviation Center of Excellence, November 13: "To see them fly off with the load, I’m like, 'Ok, we did good,'" she said, with a chuckle. Bernard said she and her husband were married before he joined the Army, and that among their deciding factors that led to military service was family, along with stability and the desire to do more than he was doing.”

• Aviation Center of Excellence, November 13: “He was working retail with me,” she said of life before the Army. “To see him transition to this is amazing. In my wildest dreams I never thought we would be here, from where we started. He’s worked hard all the way and he shows our boys the same thing: Nobody can dictate your life. You make your own decisions. I’m very proud of that,” she said. “This is a very eye-opening experience,” Bernard said. “I’d do it again!”

• Aviation Center of Excellence, November 13: “Staff Sgt. Shaun M. Moore, a CH-47 Chinook helicopter flight engineer with Company B, 1-223d Aviation, was able to attend alongside his wife Whitney. He’s been serving 10 years, and just arrived at Fort Rucker this summer.”

• Aviation Center of Excellence, November 13: “I think it’s awesome, her getting to experience some of what we do and her getting involved in it. She supports me so much at home. She gets to come out and see everything and take a break too away from at home with the kids to come out and do all of this,” Moore said.”

• Aviation Center of Excellence, November 13: “Of watching her participate in the type of work he does daily, he said, “They were rigging sling blocks for the CH-47 to come in and pick it up and fly it around. It was pretty cool. They got to be pretty close to it and feel the wind from the rotor wash. It was cool for her to experience all that and get to do what I do every day.”

• Aviation Center of Excellence, November 13: “He noted that she also had an opportunity to do some things he doesn’t do daily, such as take the controls in the UH-72 simulations training device. “For her to be able to fly in the simulator, that’s really neat.”