TYRONE, Pa.- Members of the Pennsylvania Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team (PA-HART) saved a hunter with life-threatening injuries in Blair County Nov. 22.
First responders on the ground called for the team's assistance through the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, according to Lt. Col. Michael Girvin, commander of 2nd Battalion (General Support), 104th Aviation Regiment. The responders needed to move the victim quickly and the remote heavily wooded terrain made the extraction difficult for wheeled vehicles.
This was the first in-state PA-HART rescue mission, said Girvin, although the team has been training to do this since 2006. The Pennsylvania National Guard has done other military only hoist rescues during domestic emergencies.
The unique capabilities of the team's aircraft, a Pennsylvania National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk piloted by Chief Warrant Officer 4 Keith Hogan and Chief Warrant Officer 3 James Menoher, configured with a medevac package including a hoist, was ideal for this scenario.
"We launched from the Army Aviation Support Facility #2 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where the aircraft is located and crew works," said Hogan. "It took us about 20 minutes flying time until we reached the patient's location. We started to hover above the tree line and sent Scott Grahn and Ricky Price [civilian rescue technicians] down on the hoist to assist the patient and first responders on the ground while Staff Sgt. Benjamin Turgeon operated the hoist," he said.
After the patient was loaded onto the aircraft the pilots and crew transported them to a nearby field. There they were moved to a civilian medevac aircraft and transported to a nearby hospital.
"The patient was relieved to see us," said Hogan, "and we were happy to help; this is exactly what we train for and we're ready to be called upon for the next rescue mission."
According to news reports, the hunter injured his leg when he fell from a tree.
The PA-HART is a joint partnership between the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency along with credentialed civilian rescue technicians. PA-HART can respond at the request of a local emergency management coordinator. The coordinator must notify the State Emergency Operation Center.
Members of the Pennsylvania National Guard are assigned as military technicians to the Army Aviation Support Facility #2 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Their military assignments encompass a variety of commands throughout the Pennsylvania National Guard including: Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 230th Assault Helicopter Regiment, Tennessee National Guard, and Detachment 1, Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion (General Support), 104th Aviation Regiment, 28th Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade, 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania Army National Guard.