About 60 National Guard Soldiers from New York are in southern Colorado doing their final training before they deploy to Afghanistan.

Fort Carson is a perfect training sight because the landscape closely resembles what the soldiers will find in Afghanistan.

The National Guard troops will spend most of their time in Afghanistan aboard the CH-47 Chinook helicopter.

"Our primary purpose on the battle field is to transport troops and equipment around the battlefield," said Captain William Hummer.

Once overseas, aerial gunnery will become very important to this heavy helicopter unit.

"The only means of defense we have is the M240 machine guns so it's very important that our door gunners get used to flying with the weapons," said Hummer.

And for the gunners, it's all about accuracy and diligence.
"It's a hostile environment," said Chief Warrant Officer Frank Rotella.

For the past forty days they've been flying around the mountains near Colorado Springs.

"Your flying in an environment where the aircraft doesn't have the power that it has as sea level," Hummer said.

"Colorado is probably as close as you can get to the Afghanistan terrain," said Rotella.

So when their time is up in Colorado, they’re sure to be ready for what lies ahead in the warzone.

"It's certainly doesn't get the same attention as Iraq but things are happening there and its still very important that we go and do our mission," Hummer said.

"We're in the National Guard, we're here cause we chose to be, we'll do the job and we're all going to come back safe," said Rotella.

The soldiers will deploy sometime towards the end of August or early September; they’ll be back sometime next May.