There is no mistaking the sound of a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, which causes many to take pause as they landed at Harvey Field today.

The American-made, tandem rotor heavy-lift helicopter's primary role is for troop movement, and that is exactly what they were doing in Snohomish. The two initial busloads of National Guard troops were heading east of the mountains to Yakima for weekend training.

Army Lt. Birznieks was leading the one bravo team in the first group to fly out for training. The guardsmen are part of the 176th Engineer Company (Vertical Construction) stationed at the Snohomish Armory. The 176th Engineer Company has about 110 soldiers attached to their unit.

This weekend's training in Yakima will focus on land navigation and night vision operation.

Most of the reservists in the group that we talked to had not ever flown in a Chinook helicopter before. In fact, during the preflight briefing, when the question was asked, only three people raised their hands as having done so before.

One soldier who had was Sergeant Strom — in each of his four deployments, two in Iraq and two in Afghanistan. "The Chinook rides pretty smooth," he said.

Lt. Birznieks told us their current training is in preparation for a deployment to Guatemala, where they plan to construct a school building.

Seeing these giant machines land and then take off again is breathtaking. It makes a person feel pride in their community for serving the military through something as simple as an airport.

Harvey Field has been providing needed support to aviators including the military since 1945 when the airport was first built on a portion of the Harvey Homestead land.

So the next time you drive by Harvey Field, look out your window. You never know what interesting things you may see. 

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