MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Guardsmen with the California Air National Guard’s 129th Rescue Wing rescued a Mexican citizen at sea July 7 after the person sustained traumatic injuries aboard a fishing vessel.
U.S. Coast Guard District 11 received a distress call July 6 from the Azteca 5 fishing vessel, 700 nautical miles from the coast of Cabo San Lucas, requesting emergency medical care. The patient, a 47-year-old man, sustained serious injuries aboard the ship earlier that day.
“It was going to take [Azteca 5] roughly 45 hours for the ship to get to Island Socorro on their own,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Taylor Franklin, a HC-130 pilot who flew during this mission.
The wing was alerted to a possible mission by District 11, and the team began executing the mission, assessing ship coordinates and weather conditions.
The capabilities of the 129th made it the best option to answer the call because it has conducted long-range maritime search-and-rescue operations for more than 50 years.
“The thing that we bring to the table is two things – our range with the C-130 and the medical capability of the [pararescuemen],” Franklin said.
The patient was transported from the Azteca 5 to its sister ship, Franz, and headed towards Socorro Island, a remote area of Mexico’s Revillagigedo Archipelago.
An HC-130J Combat King II aircraft assigned to the wing’s 130th Rescue Squadron departed Moffett Air National Guard Base early July 7 with four Guardian Angel pararescuemen, or PJs, assigned to the 131st Rescue Squadron, after being activated by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center.
The 129th’s HC-130 reached the Franz about 550 nautical miles from the coast of Cabo San Lucas.
Medical supplies were dropped from the aircraft’s hatch into the open ocean, followed by four PJs who quickly reached the patient aboard the Franz. The PJs treated the patient overnight, assessing his vitals to confirm the diagnosis of his injuries and plan how to deliver him to a hospital on land as soon as possible.
A Mexican lifelight ambulance arrived on Socorro Island July 8 and transported the patient to a hospital in Mazatlan, Mexico.
“It's a lot of complex planning to make this happen,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Art Eisberg, the search and rescue duty officer assigned to this mission.
The mission reiterated the importance of the Department of War National Guard Bureau State Partnership Program between the California National Guard and the Mexican National Defense Secretariat.
“Building a relationship with the officials [at Socorro Island] will help us in the future. They got to see how we operate and they were very gracious and grateful for our assistance,” Eisberg said. “That really strengthened our partnership.”
The program aims to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships by enhancing collaboration in shared military expertise, border security and disaster response.
“It's going to make everyone that much better to have this experience for when they have to go deploy and do it in a combat environment,” Eisberg said.
This save marked the 129th Rescue Wing’s 1,190th save since 1977.