COLUMBIA, S.C. — Listen up, Midlands. The South Carolina National Guard wants you to know about a larger-than-normal military presence in the skies this weekend.
The U.S. military will conduct a joint training exercise called the Palmetto Fury throughout the weekend.
Starting Friday, the Army National Guard will be out with its Black Hawk and Apache helicopters, as well as engineers. Some C-17s from Charleston and joint tactical forces from Florida will also be in the Palmetto State for this training.
News19 spoke with Chief David Reynolds of the South Carolina National Guard about why such military exercises are so important.
"We call it multi domain operations. It's the new doctrine that we anticipate our military forces will face if we go to conflict with folks around the world," said Chief Reynolds. "So, along with our active-duty component, the National Guard supplements them greatly, and we have to be able to fight and win on any battlefield, anywhere in the world. And so, Palmetto Fury is part of that preparation that we will use to not only train ourselves for MDO or multi domain operations, but it also tests our doctrine, and it brings our joint or sister services in with us because it will be a joint fight."
This is happening on Friday and throughout the weekend. The National Guard wants to remind everyone that there is no need to call local law enforcement, as this is a pre-planned training exercise.