JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska - Alaska Air National Guard members of the 176th Wing rescued an injured goat hunter Oct. 4 about 15 miles northwest of Haines.
The mission started when the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center received a request for assistance from the Alaska State Troopers following a report of a goat hunter injured when he fell down a cliff.
The AKRCC requested assistance from the 176th Wing, and the 176th Operations Group search and rescue duty officer dispatched a 210th Rescue Squadron HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter and a 211th Rescue Squadron HC-130J Combat King II, both with 212th Rescue Squadron pararescuemen (PJs) on board.
Alaska Air National Guard Lt. Col. Gavin Johnson, 210th RQS pilot and aircraft commander, said the mission required detailed planning because of the remote distances of Southeast Alaska.
“Once we got into the squadron [upon alert], we took a minute to look at routing, fuel and weather,” Johnson said. “Weather was the primary concern with some bad weather already there, and it was forecasted to get worse along the coastline.”
Alaska’s complex terrain often requires helicopter pilots to negotiate mountain passes, valleys and basins to reach their destination.
“We came up with a good gameplan to fly out past Chickaloon down the Copper River Basin and then down the coastline to the incident site,” Johnson said.
The HC-130, in addition to providing high-altitude/high-speed search, weather reconnaissance and communications retransmission, refuels the HH-60 in the air to extend the helicopter’s range.
“The flight out there was relatively uneventful,” Johnson said. “King was able to pass us gas, and they were able to push ahead and locate the survivor’s position and establish communications with (the hunting party) and get an initial picture of what things looked like on scene.”
Johnson said two civilian ground medics hiked to the injured hunter. They provided initial medical care but could not extract him due to the rugged terrain.
The helicopter had to refuel one more time before reaching the landing zone.
“We grabbed another tank of gas from King near Yakutat while we were southbound, and we got on scene we assessed the area,” Johnson said.
The PJs, led by Staff Sgt. Micah McKinnis, hoisted to the ground, hiked to the patient’s location, packaged him in a litter, and hoisted him into the helicopter with the two medics before dropping them off at Haines Road nearby.
The helicopter landed in Yakutat, about 150 miles northwest of Haines, and the PJs loaded the patient into the HC-130 for fast transport to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. An ambulance transported the hunter to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.