THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, January 6, 1995                TAG: 9501060488
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                         LENGTH: Medium:   55 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: ***************************************************************** Marine Corps helicopter pilots train with Navy helicopter pilots at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla. A story Friday on helicopter operations contained misinformation about where the Marine pilots train. Correction published Saturday, January 7, 1995 on page A2. ***************************************************************** MOST HELICOPTER DUTIES WOULD BE SHIFTED TO ARMY UNDER PLAN

The Army is offering to take charge of all military helicopters, assuming responsibility for purchasing, maintenance and training for the other services.

The plan, disclosed by the senior officer heading an Army ``Roles and Missions'' review, will be put before a congressionally mandated commission looking at making the military more efficient.

``The Army has the bulk of the DOD's helicopters, and we have the infrastructure that could support a defensewide approach to rotary-wing aviation,'' Brig. Gen. Jack Costello told defense writers Thursday.

He said the proposal includes taking over the acquisition of such systems, their logistical support systems and the training of personnel involved in helicopters.

The Army already handles initial training for Air Force and Marine Corps helicopter pilots, as well as for its own pilots, at Fort Rucker, Ala. The Navy trains chopper jockeys independently at a base near Pensacola, Fla.

Lt. Col. Tim Muchmore, an aide to Costello, said later that the Army proposal does not extend to giving the Army operational control of other services' helicopters. He noted that before retiring as Air Force chief of staff last fall, Gen. Merrill A. McPeak had voiced a willingness to shift all Air Force choppers to the Army.

Costello said the proposal has not been studied by the Navy or the Marines. Representatives of those services reacted with varying degrees of skepticism to the idea; the Navy said it is interested in studying joint training of helicopter pilots and joint acquisition of choppers, but a Marine spokeswoman said the maintenance of an independent Marine helicopter force is ``fundamental to the way the Marine Corps fights.''

Costello said the proposal was incomplete, so he could not estimate savings or when the plan might be put into effect. by CNB