40th Helicopter Squadron records save 368 Sunday: Huey crew performs flawless hoist extraction; rescues man after hiking incident

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Emerald Ralston
  • 341st Space Wing Public Affairs Office
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  A UH-1N Huey crew from the 40th Helicopter Squadron recorded the unit's 368th save when they rescued a hiker near Pine Creek Lake in the Absaroka Range just south of Livingston, Mont., Sunday. 

The man was hiking with two other people when a boulder fell on him, crushing his foot and lower leg. 

The helicopter crew was alerted at 1:30 p.m. by Maj. Lee Newton, 40th HS director of operations, and arrived at an impromptu staging area at approximately 3 p.m. after a local helicopter unable to complete the job. 

"Every mission our helos fly here involves a level of risk," Major Newton said. "Search-and-rescues like this have even more risk. The challenge is to accept no "unreasonable risk" while accomplishing a purposeful mission. This was the highest mountain area a crew has operated in during my time here - Col. Sandy Finan [341st Space Wing commander] was courageous to approve this mission. It was the right thing to do." 

"The staging area was a couple miles west of the survivor where the mountains flattened out into the Yellowstone River Valley," said Capt. Graydon Muller, aircraft commander. "There we met with the rescue workers from Livingston who were coordinating the effort. They gave us an update on the survivor's condition so we would know what kind of equipment to take with us." 

The crew spotted the patient and ground crew on the cliffs along the west side of the lake on a 60 degree slope, according to Capt. Mitchell Parrish, 341st Medical Operations Squadron flight surgeon. The patient had a lower leg fracture with a large laceration. The ground paramedic at the site had applied a splint and dressing to control the bleeding. He was in stable condition despite the significant injury. 

"With the injury, it would have been impossible for the patient to walk down the mountain and litter carry would have been treacherous," Captain Parrish said. "There was no helicopter landing areas within miles, so hoist rescue was required." 

After determining the hoist was required, the crew brought themselves to a hover over the survivor and ground team. Capt. Ben Brown, co-pilot in the mission, hovered while Airman 1st Class Devan Haskell, flight engineer, lowered Captain Parrish down on the hoist. 

"I landed and performed an initial assessment of the patient," Captain Parrish said. "His vital signs were stable and he was alert and oriented. His left foot was splinted, an IV was in place and he had already received some morphine for pain. The pilots and flight engineer did an outstanding job with this challenging hoist and were able to safely lift us to the aircraft without incident." 

After the patient was secured in the aircraft, the crew rushed him to Bozeman Deaconess Hospital where he was turned over to emergency room personnel. 

The crew then returned to the staging area to pick up Capt. Holli Bellusci, 341st MDOS flight nurse, who had been dropped off to assist in coordination between the helicopter, ground crews and the hospital. 

"Since the Livingston rescue team located and stabilized the survivor, they were extremely helpful to our crew in passing weather and survivor information which helped the mission go very smoothly," Captain Muller said. 

"The mission was performed with precision, efficiency and intelligence," said Captain Parrish. "The pilots were outstanding in executing a safe, effective, efficient and successful mission. Despite limited prior real-world search-and-rescue experience, the entire crew performed like old pros and everything went smoothly."