About those Blackhawks "training" in Post Mills, Vermont?

Matt Bracken writes in:

One other aspect of this type of "helicopter training mission" is that it often involves the cooption of the local police and city/county officials.

The local police chief and mayor go on lots of "Hooyah!" joy-rides over their town and county. Any local/regional SWAT teams get "cross-trained" by Delta, SEALs, etc. Lots of federal largesse is spread around. Money for the town to buy its own helicopter is offered, new SWAT gear, surplus armored vehicles, etc etc.

The Police Chief or his more willing henchmen are often offered various courses at FLE training facilities such as Quantico VA or Brunswick GA. These are major career enhancements. Some will even be offered a lateral transfer to FLE at some point in the future, a huge incentive for local LE seeking an upgrade to the far better federal salaries, benefits and pensions etc. At this point the local LE are salivating to cooperate with any future  FLEA missions in their area.

The purpose of all this is to get the local/regional govt officials and LE to become willing federal poodles. Remember "Black Hawk Down?" Delta were the high-speed operators, the Rangers were perimeter security, (at least that was how it was planned). This is a good model for understanding the interplay between FLEA teams and the local PDs. FLEAs are the door kickers, local LE pulls perimeter security, etc.

The Grand Rapids, Idaho Chief of Police who pulled security for the massive ATF/IRS raid on a hapless gun store was a Quantico graduate, this was featured prominently on his PD website CV.

I'm not saying this is the ONLY reason for the helicopter training. But it's almost always a collateral purpose at the very minimum. Keep an eye on your local mayor and police chief.