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• • Black Hawk Flight Over Crazy Mountains
  • Montana National Guard assists with road project
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  • Black Hawk Flight Over Crazy Mountains
  • Montana National Guard assists with road project

When they are not deployed overseas, the Montana National Guard often tackles projects in our own backyard. The News Station's Marnee Banks flew with the Guard to their most recent project and has more from Eastern Montana.

Just a few weeks ago, the Montana National Guard began construction on a one-mile stretch of road just outside Powder River Ville. From aircrews to ground crews, the project combines the efforts of soldiers from all over Montana.

First Lieutenant Zane Curtiss explained, "Every day that we come out here, there is such a contrast to how it was the day before. It's just unreal how. When we came out here there were factors such as weather, equipment going down, and stuff like that. We didn't know how far we were going to get. Seeing it from when it started to now is just night and day difference."

The stretch of road has historically seen dangerous conditions from drifting snow to cars driving off the road. School buses and the post office use the road often, so the county has wanted to fix it, but with a price tag of up to $100,000, they just haven't been able to.

Jerry Backlund, the Custer County Road & Bridge supervisor, noted, "This is a project that Custer County could not only not afford to do, but would not get done because we don't have the manpower or the equipment to do it. They mitigated a very hazardous corner for us."

The project has brought together the 260th Construction unit out of Billings, and the 219th Air Patrol out of Great Falls; all of the soldiers are using this project as part of their annual training.

Private Meaghan Handran, a relative newcomer to the Guard, said, "Well, I am getting used to my unit, this is my first AT. So I am learning how to trust everybody, and I know if I need help there are people I can go to."

Crews plan to finish up the project by the end of the week and pack up their equipment and head back to their civilian jobs. The 219th is slated to deploy in September for an overseas mission, while the 260th is scheduled for deployment in 2012.

WEB EXTRA: raw video from the Blackhawk flight over the Crazy Mountains: