THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED — ‘Military uses North Olympic Peninsula to set the stage for exercises [PHOTO GALLERY] ‘ —https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20150323/NEWS/303239967

————–

RESIDENTS ALONG THE Strait of Juan de Fuca and Admiralty Inlet will be seeing military helicopters and an aircraft carrier starting today.

Army UH-60M Black Hawk, AH-64E Apache and CH-47 Chinook helicopters will fly from Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Tacoma to William R. Fairchild International Airport and the Coast Guard Air Station/Sector Field Office, both in Port Angeles, where they will stage for a joint training exercise with Navy units aboard the carrier USS John C. Stennis.

The Stennis leaves Bremerton today for the at-sea exercises, which will begin with helicopter training in Admiralty Inlet and the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca north of Port Townsend.

The aircraft will train with the carrier as it leaves the Strait and travels down the Pacific coast, a statement by the Lewis-McChord command said.

Upon completion of their training, the helicopters will return to Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

No specific times were released for any of the training exercises.

Current missions require Army aviators to perform overwater operations with joint forces from Navy ships, the command said.

Army units have conducted overwater operations with the Navy in Haiti, the Persian Gulf, Korea, and in Joint Exercises around the Pacific.