Fort Shafter, Hawaii – Army Mariners on Logistics Support Vessel 3, the General Brehon B. Somervell, and Soldiers with 545th Harbormaster Detachment, 8th Special Troops Battalion, 8th Theater Sustainment Command conducted a two-day live hoist training for over water capabilities with the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, Jan. 23, 2024, in the waters off of Oahu, Hawaii.
“We are simulating isolated personnel stranded in an open body of water,” said Capt. Alec Greenberg, a platoon leader with Company C, 325th General Support Aviation Battalion, 25th Infantry Division. “The Army’s medevac company has been tasked with rescuing personnel by sending a swimmer out of the aircraft, through a hoist, into the water to locate the personnel.”
With the help of a rescue basket or strop – depending on the casualty, environment, and ocean conditions – swimmers were able to secure and rescue a simulated man overboard and hoist them into the aircraft. While in the aircraft, the swimmer was able to provide needed medical aid en route to either a medical treatment facility or a military vessel. On the first day, a dummy casualty and a live swimmer on the hoist were used. By day two, they took the next step with a live person in place of a dummy.
“I think it’s (the training is) good because you never know what’s going to happen. We do a lot of missions between these inner island runs and over the ocean,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Michael Arnett, third mate on LSV-3. “Our main ideal evacuation, if we had a casualty, would be to get a helicopter overtop. This helps us assist, and for aviation, it’s nice to have that capability to rescue a victim as quickly as possible.”
It’s rare for a man overboard situation to occur with all of the policies, rules, and regulations on vessels, and Army Mariners go through a good deal of training to make sure they know how to conduct themselves while underway.
“We practice for this just in case, because the Army has had Soldiers that they’ve actually lost at sea. When you’re out there anything can happen,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jose Gomez, 545th Harbormaster Detachment. “It’s something we take seriously. Go out there and practice this just in case, but hope it never happens.”
When it comes down to it, seconds could be the difference between life or death. According to Greenberg, this capability of evacuating casualties from water will be important for future operations that may take place in the South Pacific or in the Indo-Pacific. This exercise proves that the Army can perform this critical mission.
“Normally it’s the Coast Guard; they’re the ones that actually rescue people from the sea, or the Navy,” said Gomez. “This is something new that the Army is working on. We are working together on being self-sufficient.”
Greenberg said Army medevac units in Honduras and Savannah, Georgia, have trained on this. However, as of now, these Hawaii-based units are the first and only ones in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command that have successfully used Army medevac helicopters to simulate rescuing a casualty from water by placing a swimmer in the water to assist.
Attire is one obstacle aviators look to conquer to enhance their readiness for this mission.
“Army doctrine, even for aviation, is still primarily based for land operations,” said Greenberg. “To place people in water, we’re going to have to start looking for exceptions to policy to authorize them to be able to wear fins, snorkel masks, high visibility helmets and possibly even wetsuits for dedicated missions of this type.”
The Army aviators are not taking on this training without the assistance of experts in this type of mission.
“We sat down three times with Coast Guard rescue swimmers, pilots, and their versions of crew chiefs. They gave us tips, tricks, and advice,” said Greenberg. “They certified a pool assessment test with us. We’re not taking the Coast Guard’s mission and we’re not certifying rescue swimmers, but we are copying the way they do everything.”
Greenberg suggests that they are in the crawl phase of this capability, but more is yet to come. Eventually the walk phase will move into open ocean and the run phase will be conducted during the Rim of the Pacific Exercise later this summer, as well as future Operation Pathways events. The focus is future large-scale combat operations taking place in the Indo-Pacific.
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