An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Home : News : Article View
NEWS | April 12, 2018

Okla. Guard members splash down with special-rescue team

By Maj. Geoff Legler Oklahoma National Guard

OKLAHOMA CITY – Members of the Oklahoma Army National Guard participated in water rescue training last week over the waters of the Oklahoma River as part of a newly formed rescue task force.

Oklahoma Task Force One is comprised of members of the Tulsa, Verdigris, Norman and Oklahoma City Fire Departments, along with members of the Oklahoma Army National Guard. The Task Force One firefighters are certified rescue divers and paramedics who filled the roles of both the flood victims and rescue swimmers during the exercise.

Oklahoma Army National Guard helicopters and Guard members from Army Aviation Support Facility (AASF) 1, in Tulsa, and AASF 2, in Lexington, Oklahoma, spent most of the day hovering over the Oklahoma RIVERSPORT Complex in Oklahoma City, hoisting rescue divers from the water.

Task Force One, which officially began operations in October of last year, specializes in rescuing civilians from deadly situations, which include open and rapid water; lost hiker; collapsed trench; roof top; and post-natural disaster rescues, among others.

"[We] are deployable during state/local emergencies and regional to national emergencies similar to what [is] seen during our flood season in the spring, [periods of] heavy storm impact, even up to the hurricanes that we've seen as recent as last year in Texas," said Lt. Josh Pearcy, lead rescue swimmer for the Oklahoma City Fire Department.

Together, the firefighters and National Guard aviators comprise what is known as an HSRT, or Helicopter Search and Rescue Team, which is overseen, funded and dispatched by Oklahoma's Office of Emergency Management.

For this exercise, the Oklahoma Army National Guard employed two UH-60 Black Hawk and two UH-72 Lakota helicopters. The aircrews, along with rescue divers, practiced open-water rescue techniques utilizing both strop harnesses and rescue baskets.

Each rescue diver had the opportunity to play both the rescuer and the rescued and rotate between each of the helicopters using both the harnesses and baskets.

"Next month we'll be doing rapid water training and [for our] final culmination, we'd like to be doing rapid water training, at night, using NVGs (night vision goggles)," said Capt. Brandon Files, the Oklahoma National Guard's liaison to Task Force One.

According to Files, Task Force One has planned several more training events at the Riversport Complex.

 

 

Related Articles
U.S. Soldiers with the Army National Guard speak with D.C. locals while patrolling Metro Center Aug 26, 2025. About 2,000 National Guard members are supporting the D.C. Safe and Beautiful mission providing critical support to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department in ensuring the safety of all who live, work, and visit the District.
Guard Members From Six States, D.C. on Duty in Washington in Support of Local, Fed Authorities
By Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy, | Aug. 29, 2025
WASHINGTON – More than 2,000 National Guard Soldiers and Airmen from six states and the District of Columbia are on duty in Washington as part of Joint Task Force – District of Columbia in support of local and federal...

Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, Maj. Gen. Russel Honore, Task Force Katrina commander, and Brig. Gen. John Basilica, 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team commander, talk to news media during the aftermath of Hurricane Rita on Sep. 29, 2005. Basilica was appointed commander of Task Force Pelican, responsible for coordinating National Guard hurricane response efforts across the State. The task force included tens of thousands of National Guard Soldiers from Louisiana and other states.
Louisiana Guard’s Tiger Brigade Marks 20th Anniversary of Redeployment and Hurricane Response
By Rhett Breerwood, | Aug. 29, 2025
NEW ORLEANS – This fall, the Louisiana National Guard’s 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, known as the Tiger Brigade, commemorates the 20th anniversary of its redeployment from Iraq in September 2005, coinciding with the...

Alaska Air National Guard HH-60G Pave Hawk aviators and Guardian Angels, assigned to the 210th and 212th Rescue Squadrons, respectively, conduct a hoist rescue demonstration while participating in a multi-agency hoist symposium at Bryant Army Airfield on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, July 22, 2025. The symposium, hosted by Alaska Army National Guard aviators assigned to Golf Company, 2-211th General Support Aviation Battalion, included U.S. Coast Guard crews assigned to Sector Western Alaska and U.S. Arctic out of Air Stations Kodiak and Sitka, Alaska Air National Guardsmen with the 176th Wing rescue squadrons, U.S. Army aviators from Fort Wainwright’s 1-52nd General Support Aviation Battalion, Alaska State Troopers, and civilian search and rescue professional volunteers from the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group. The collaborative training drew on the participants’ varied backgrounds, experiences, and practices, to enhance hoist proficiency and collective readiness when conducting life-saving search and rescue missions in Alaska’s vast and austere terrain. (Alaska Army National Guard photo by Alejandro Peña)
Alaska Air Guard Conducts Multiple Hoist Rescues of Stranded Rafters on Kichatna River
By Staff Sgt. Seth LaCount, | Aug. 29, 2025
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska — Alaska Air National Guard members with the 176th Wing rescued three rafters Aug. 28 after their raft flipped over on the Kichatna River.The Alaska Rescue Coordination Center opened...