Nine people, two rescues, 12 hours: 36th Rescue Flight flexes its muscle

Published Oct. 27, 2011
By Scott King
92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs

FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash -- In two separate rescue missions, spanning nearly 12 hours, Fairchild Airmen rescued nine people in the mountains near Lewiston, Idaho, on Oct. 21.

The first rescue occurred when Mike Webberley, a 57-year-old male, slipped while deer hunting and fell down a steep valley suffering from injuries that rendered him unable to move.

Neither local officials, nor a local ground rescue team or a Life Flight helicopter crew could reach Webberley. Running out of options, the Nez Perce County, Idaho Sheriff's Office then contacted the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., which contacted the 36th Rescue Flight here. Four Airmen were then dispatched to the area in a UH-1N Iroquois helicopter.

Once they arrived on scene, flight engineer, Tech. Sgt. Steven Perez, lowered independent duty medical technician, Tech. Sgt. Joseph Brownell, 200 feet to Webberley.

"He was in pretty bad shape," Brownell said. "He had a very bad laceration on his face and told me he could not feel his legs so I quickly performed spinal clearance protocol on Mike which alleviated the need for spinal immobilization, so I splint his pelvis then secured him on the Stokes Litter for loading onto the aircraft."

Brownell then called "ready for pickup," and Webberley was hoisted through the tree canvas to the hovering helicopter. Once on board, Brownell was then hoisted up and the crew took off to the loading point about five miles away where the Life Flight helicopter was waiting to take over and transport him to a hospital. But when transferring Webberley to the Life Flight helicopter, the flight nurse accidentally pushed the stokes litter through the nose thus grounding it. So the Fairchild crew flew him to the airport in Lewiston where he was transferred to St. Joseph Regional Medical Center.

"While we were at the airport, we were notified by the local ground rescue team commander that his eight-member ground team wouldn't be able to get out that night and that a number of them, because of age and lack of prescription medication, might not survive the cold night," said Capt. Douglas Price, co-pilot for the mission. "So we contacted the AFRCC at Tyndall for the go ahead to extricate them as well."

The aircraft commander, Capt. Stephen Jones, then flew through the "now dark" skies navigating through narrow canyons and terrain through use of their search spot light scanning their flight path over the ridgeline and trees, it was so narrow that they used their red and green position lights on the side of the aircraft to light the terrain on the aircraft sides as they flew along valley walls.

"So despite using night vision goggles, we ended up flying through the canyon by following our searchlight, similar to a car lighting the way with headlights," Price said. "Had we not made the first rescue in daylight and become familiar with the terrain, we may not have been able to rescue the awaiting ground rescue team due to the extreme conditions and darkness."

Once overhead of the ground rescue team, Perez hoisted up the first two people through 150-foot trees while the aircraft was at 100 percent torque to support the increased load. They then navigated back to a command post and dropped the two people off. The crew returned two more times through the challenging terrain and dark skies to extricate the others along with Brownell, as he is the last one to be picked up once all the victims are safe.

On his "20th-plus rescue," Perez said he feels good about their efforts.

"Each search and rescue we go out on has its own set of challenges, and this one was no different," Perez said. "This one was at night, had multiple people, and multiple times through narrow terrain and pitch black skies. Although challenging, this rescue, like the others, always brings me a good feeling. I'm glad we were able to help out all nine victims and get them to safety."

Now recovering at St. Joseph from his injuries , Webberley is extremely thankful to the Fairchild Airmen.

I'm so glad they were there to help me through this," he said. "They, along with my boy were the most instrumental people getting me out of there. When I took that plunge down the embankment I was wondering what was going to await me. Now, thanks to the Air Force, I'm still alive -- they did a heck of a job."

This rescue was the most people the 36th RQF has rescued in one day making it a record breaker. This was the 24th rescue in the past 12 months bringing their total to 673.