IDAHO — Idaho Army National Guard UH-60M Black Hawk crews conducted two successful search-and-rescue missions on back-to-back days Sept. 23-24, helping rescue a lost man in rugged terrain near Riggins and a stranded hiker clinging to a cliff in the Owyhee Mountains.
On Sept. 23, a UH-60M Black Hawk crew assisted in the search and rescue of a lost individual in Idaho County. The following day, another crew assisted in rescuing a hiker in the Owyhee Mountains.
“Our Soldiers train for missions all over the world, but there's no more immediate way to see the value of that training than when they're called upon to help an Idahoan in trouble,” said Brig. Gen. Eric Orcutt, commander of the Idaho Army National Guard. “These crews bring an incredible level of skill and professionalism to some of the most difficult environments in our state, and they continue to demonstrate why the Idaho National Guard is such an important part of Idaho's emergency-response capability.”
Flight crews assisted Sept. 22 and 23 with the search for a lost individual near Riggins, in the vicinity of Kelly Mountain, who had last been seen Sunday.
Idaho County officials and volunteers located the man Sept. 23 in the Looking Glass Creek drainage west of Kelly Mountain and notified the Idaho Army National Guard’s flight operations desk that he had been found. However, because communication was limited in the remote mountainous area, the flight crew was unaware he had been found and continued its search.
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Arlin Knight, the mission’s pilot in command, said he saw a search party volunteer waving down the crew in a heavily wooded area. Knight said the area appeared too dense to land a helicopter and that a helicopter equipped with a hoist would be needed to conduct the rescue. The Black Hawk was not equipped with a hoist or other rescue equipment because the crew’s mission was to search as large an area as possible. Leaving the additional equipment behind reduced the aircraft’s weight and let the crew stay on station longer.
Knight said the crew decided to make a pass over the site to find somewhere to land. The crew tried to land in a confined area close to the patient but could get only one wheel on the ground because of the slope and determined it was not a safe landing site. The crew identified a second landing site, which required close coordination between the helicopter’s two crew chiefs and pilots.
“Landing in a place like that, it all depends on the crew chiefs to communicate to the pilot so that you’re clear of the trees,” said Knight. “You have to come down just right in a confined area.”
After landing, Knight said the crew was running short on time because of fuel limitations. The two crew chiefs, Staff Sgt. Dakota Miller and Sgt. Robert Watkins, traveled approximately 500 meters to reach the patient and those who had found him.
Miller said that when they reached the patient, he was on a soft litter. Miller told a deputy at the scene that the crew could transport the man if they could get him to the helicopter.
Miller, Watkins, the deputy and three volunteers then carried the man to the helicopter along a 2-foot-wide game trail, over logs and rocks and down and back up a ravine to reach the Black Hawk.
“We really thought there was no way to get in there without a hoist, but we found a way in,” said Knight. “The real shout out goes to Miller and Watkins, who conducted three confined landing zones after flying for six hours and then they went and got this guy and carried him back over to the helicopter in all their flight gear.”
The Black Hawk crew then transported the man to 394 Road, which required a third confined landing. The patient was reunited with his family and transported to McCall Hospital for civilian medical care.
“We had already made the decision we weren’t going to be able to get to him,” said Miller. “The entire time we were landing the helicopter, we were thinking anything we do from here was icing on the cake. It was really cool to go further than we thought we could.”
The Idaho County Sheriff’s Office, Idaho Civil Air Patrol and Idaho County Search and Rescue K9 Unit assisted with the search.
The next day, Sept. 24, a separate crew assisted the Owyhee County Sheriff’s Office, Grand View Fire Department and Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue Unit in rescuing a 21-year-old man stranded on a cliff several hundred feet above the ground in Purjue Canyon near Grand View.
Unable to climb up or down, the man used voice-to-text to contact his family and call 911.
The Idaho Army National Guard flight crew transported members of the Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue Unit technical rescue team to the top of the cliff. The team built a two-tension rope system using a rock as an anchor and lowered a rescuer to the man using an “unsupported pick-off” technique.
While the man clung to the rock face, the rescuer fitted him with a harness, and they lowered him to the ground. The man was not injured.
The search-and-rescue missions were the Idaho Army National Guard’s 12th and 13th successful missions of the year. The Idaho Army National Guard also conducted three successful rescue missions Sept. 16-20.
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