CW5 Michael A. Corsaro, U.S. Army (Ret.)
36 Years in the Cockpit. 8,275 Hours in the Air.
The 10th Command Chief Warrant Officer of the Army Aviation Branch. Seven combat deployments. Instructor and standardization pilot on the AH-64 Apache, UH-60 Black Hawk, and CH-47 Chinook. Now advising the people who put Army aviation on screen.
Work With Mike See the Press
Who He Is
He ran the system that defines correct.
Mike Corsaro finished his Army career in the branch's most senior warrant officer seat — Command Chief Warrant Officer of the Aviation Branch, the advisor on aviation matters to the entire branch and its commanding general. He held it from June 2023 until his retirement in June 2025.
Before that: a 36-year career flying, instructing, and setting the standard other Army aviators are measured against — 8,275 flight hours, 6,212 of them as pilot-in-command. He deployed seven times — Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Kuwait. He flew the AH-64D Apache Longbow in combat over Ninewa province with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. He spent the back half of his career in standardization, the discipline that decides how the Army flies and who is qualified to do it.
He is not a consultant who read about this. He did it, then he wrote the rules for it, then he taught it.
Career Timeline
36 Years, Seven Deployments
Combat Aviation — Operation Iraqi Freedom & Beyond
Flew the AH-64D Apache Longbow in combat with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment — Longknife Squadron, Renegade Troop — over Iraq's Ninewa province, August 2005. Seven deployments across the career: Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Kuwait.
Apache Branch Standardization Instructor Pilot — DES (2013–2016)
Directorate of Evaluation and Standardization, Army Aviation, Fort Rucker, Alabama. The office that writes and enforces how the Army's Apache force is flown and evaluated.
Brigade Senior Standardization Instructor Pilot (2016–2019)
2nd Combat Aviation Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, South Korea. Standardization authority for a forward-stationed combat aviation brigade.
Command Chief Warrant Officer, 4th CAB (2019–2022)
4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado — leading warrant officer training and development for the brigade. Then Senior Warrant Officer Training Advisor to the 4th Infantry Division Commanding General (2022–2023).
Command Chief Warrant Officer of the Aviation Branch (2023–2025)
Tenth officer to hold the position. Assumed responsibility 9 June 2023 at Fort Novosel, Alabama; senior aviation advisor to the Branch Commanding General across 340 fixed-wing, 3,700 rotary-wing, and 300 unmanned aircraft. Stood up the Army's first Advanced Tactics Instructor Course (ATIC) for the AH-64, UH-60, and CH-47 in January 2025, and modernized warrant officer professional military education. Relinquished responsibility 27 June 2025 and retired.
Gallery
In the Cockpit & On the Field
More official imagery: DVIDS photo archive → · army.mil →
The Advisory Work
Why Productions Call
Military aviation on screen fails in small ways the audience feels even when they can't name it. A crew that doesn't move like a crew. Radio traffic no controller ever said. A cockpit lit wrong. An aircraft doing something its airframe cannot do.
Mike's value is that he ran the system that defines correct. Standardization officers exist to answer one question — is this being flown the right way — and he answered it at battalion, brigade, and branch level.
Airframe Accuracy
Flight profiles, capabilities, and limits across the Army rotary-wing inventory.
Crew Behavior
How aviators actually talk, move, brief, and run a cockpit under load.
Combat Realism
Grounded in seven deployments, not in other films.
Procedure & Terminology
Communications, checklists, mission planning, ground handling.
Uniform, Rank & Protocol
Insignia, bearing, ceremony, chain of command.
On-Set Advisory & Script Review
Rehearsal through principal photography. Flagging what breaks credibility before it costs a reshoot.
Credentials
The Record
| Final rank | Chief Warrant Officer 5 (CW5) |
| Final position | 10th Command Chief Warrant Officer, U.S. Army Aviation Branch |
| Service | 36-year career, U.S. Army Aviation |
| Combat deployments | Seven — Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Kuwait |
| Total flight hours | 8,275 — including 6,212 pilot-in-command, 4,121 night vision device, and 1,758 instrument |
| Instructor hours | 4,782 — Instructor Pilot (2,234), Instrument Examiner (1,132), Standardization Pilot (1,416) |
| Aircraft qualified | AH-64 A/D/E (IP / IFE / SP) · CH-47 D/F (PC / IFE) · UH-60 A/L (IFE) · UH-1H (IFE) |
| Instructor & evaluator | Instructor Pilot, Instrument Flight Examiner, Standardization Pilot; Directorate of Evaluation and Standardization (DES) |
| Civilian rating | Commercial Pilot — Rotorcraft-Helicopter, Instrument-Helicopter |
| Clearance | Active Top Secret |
| Education | Warrant Officer Senior Staff College · B.S., Business Administration–Marketing, California State University, Sacramento |
| Honors & affiliations | Honorable Order of Saint Michael, Gold (Aviation) · Army Aviation Association of America · Veterans of Foreign Wars |
Get It Right the First Time
Reshoots cost more than advisors do.
If you're putting Army aviation on screen, bring in someone who spent a 36-year career making sure it was done correctly.
Contact MikeBookings & inquiries: gary@trystum.com