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Rescue from Mt. Shasta by the 126th Med Co

On the morning of 11 June 1999, the Sacramento Flight Operations for the California National Guard received notification that a woman had been injured in a fall at a high elevation on Mt. Shasta.  Still conscious, she'd been able to contact the Shasta County Sheriff's Department on a cell phone she carried.  Ground rescuers were on the way to her but, due to the high altitude, steepness, and inaccessiblity of the terrain, the only practical means of extracting her would be an extremely powerful helicopter.

The obvious choice was a UH-60 Black Hawk, the aircraft the Guard's 126th Med Company keeps on 24-hour rescue standby.  The 126th has just returned from seven months in Bosnia where its pilots and crews flew MEDEVAC missions just like this for NATO forces. Crewmembers chosen for this rescue were CW4 Rod Cain and myself as pilots, SSG J. J. Moore as the medic, and SSG Alan Worthy as the crewchief--all of us Bosnia vets. We flew to the town of Mt. Shasta and landed at the Mercy Hospital pad there; Shasta County's Search and Rescue Team was waiting to brief us.

J. J. points to where on the mountain we'd go (the tiny dark spot just under the tip of his finger).  Despite the fact that it was only about six miles away, this part of Mt. Shasta stood at 12,100 feet--about 8,000 feet higher than where we sat.          We prepped the aircraft at the pad and took off.

As we approached our objective, it became apparent that we'd need every ounce of lift our Blackhawk could deliver.   The ground rescue team had reached the patient but reported the surface to be an extremely steep and icy slope.  We'd have to hover about 150 feet overhead, lower a Stokes litter to the team, then return once they had her buckled in.  We'd hoist her aboard and fly her to the hospital.

Once we'd delivered the Stokes litter, we put down on a broad ledge a few thousand feet below to wait until the ground team was ready.  This was a welcome break since it allowed us to burn off some fuel to lighten ourselves for the pickup.  Weight was critical now since we'd discovered we'd had a very slim power margin when we'd dropped off the litter.

After about fifteen minutes, the call came and we headed back.  When we arrived, the team had our patient tucked inside a sleeping bag and strapped into the Stokes litter. Lifts like this are tricky to say the very least.  SSG Alan Worthy, our crewchief and a skilled hoist operator, had to lower the cable, then once attached, lifted the litter to the aircraft while making sure it didn't begin to swing or spin.  All this was made more difficult by the fact that our high altitude, critically limited power, and the gusty winds made keeping the aircraft steady a real challenge.

But all unfolded as planned and Alan, working alone since our weight put us right at the envelope's edge, brought our patient inside without incident.  Now all that remained was the quick flight down to the hospital.   On the way, J. J. administered oxygen, checked her vital signs and relayed them to the Emergency Room.

Once down, J. J. gave our patient a final checkout before we allowed the ambulance crew to unload her onto their waiting gurney.

With our patient safely in the hospital, our final task was to make a quick trip back up to the mountain  to pick up the ground rescue team.  They'd made their way down to the 10,000-foot level and surely appreciated the fast ride home.

If you're wondering whether we all were waiting at the base, standing by for a mission like this to happen, the answer is "no."  As National Guardsmen, we're the classic "citizen soldiers," keeping ourselves ready and trained for events just such as this.  Our Flight Operations contacted us and we headed right in, arriving in minutes.

In real life, CW4 Rod Cain is an Instructor Pilot at the Flight Facility, I'm a physicist/engineer, SSG Alan Worthy is an accountant, and SSG J. J. Moore is a California Corrections Officer.  But it's folks like us and the many more in the 126th Medical Company (Air Ambulance) that make it possible for the State to quickly respond to emergencies like this one.

So that's the story of this particular rescue.  I'd surely appreciate your comments or any input you might have.  If you'd like to drop me a line, my address is: n6tst@ridgenet.net.

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