Utah, Nevada Guard aviators take on mission of prehistoric proportions

SALT LAKE CITY - Millions of years ago, pterosaurs roamed the skies. In June, UH-60 Black Hawk and UH-72 Lakota helicopters assigned to the 2-211th Aviation Regiment, Utah Army National Guard, along with a CH-47 Chinook from the 1st Battalion, 189th Aviation Regiment, Nevada National Guard, took flight over Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument for a unique mission: helping airlift multiple rock-encased dinosaur fossils for the Natural History Museum of Utah and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

"We excavated an entire skeleton of a baby duck-billed dinosaur, an animal that probably from tip of the head to tip of the tail, was only 2 or 3 ft. long," said Randall Irmis, curator of paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Utah. "All the bones were still in life position, so they were still connected. If you imagine all the vertebrae in the tail and the backbone, all the leg bones were still connected in life position, and that's really, really rare."

While the animal was relatively small, the fossilized remains weighed more than 1,100 pounds encased in rock.

In addition to Utah Guardsmen assisting with the duck-billed dinosaur skeleton, Nevada National Guard aviators assigned to the 1-189th Aviation Regiment supported scientists from North Carolina by using a Chinook helicopter to lift a 4,000-pound fossilized ornithomimid, a theropod dinosaur that resembled a modern-day ostrich. Each fossil will be transported to its respective museum for study and preparation before eventual public display.

The Utah museum team has worked at the dig site since 2024. After two seasons of excavation, the duck-billed dinosaur skeleton was unearthed and wrapped in a cast made of burlap and plaster to protect the fossils during aerial transport provided by the Utah National Guard's 2-211th Aviation Regiment and the 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne).

"We are really excited to work with the National Guard," said Irmis. "Not only to have all their awesome team manpower with the riggers to get everything set, but also to take advantage of these heavy lift helicopters. We're lucky when we get to use helicopters at all, but especially to have ones that can lift such a large load is really special."

Missions like the airlift are part of the Innovative Readiness Training program, which provides real-world training opportunities for service members while supporting community needs. The mission showed the National Guard is ready not only to respond during emergencies, but also to support public agencies when they need assistance.

"I think a big part of the National Guard is just to help out the community," said Spc. A.J. Goncalves, a parachute rigger assigned to the 19th SFG. "Whether that's disaster relief, helping the scientific community, education, anything like that, we are more than happy to help."

Citizen-Soldiers assisting their communities is central to the National Guard mission. For Chief Warrant Officer 3 Scott Hermansen, a Nevada pilot with a geology degree from Chico State University, the mission brought together two careers.

"This was a full circle moment given our background in geology," he said. "Being able to offer our expertise to benefit the scientific community was phenomenal."

Utah National Guard aviation assets support a variety of missions for the state, including water bucket drops, wildfire suppression and search and rescue. Pilots and riggers train to respond to any call, but airlifting a 76-million-year-old specimen was a unique mission for those involved.

"Seeing a military helicopter carry a 76 million year old piece of history like that is really something special," said Spc. Kartchner Perkins, a crew chief with the 2-211th. "It's something that'll stick with me for the rest of my life."

The opportunity provided Soldiers with lasting memories and valuable training they can apply to future missions.

"It was a really cool experience being able to work in this terrain and this environment," said Goncalves. "It really prepares us for adaptability and flexibility when it comes to missions like this. I was super excited to be a part of it."

The National Guard airlift is just the beginning of the fossils' journey. Paleontologists at the museum will open the casts, meticulously remove rock from the fossils and add adhesive to cracks or breaks. The fossils will then be studied and preserved at the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City, where the public can participate in the prehistoric discovery.

"It's really important to preserve them for everybody because these fossils are from public lands," said Irmis. "These are owned by all American citizens and we care for them in the public trust back at the museum and share them through exhibits and all sorts of other content that we produce."

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