Friday, September 11, 2020

The Campers in California were rescued

There was a heroic rescue of over 200 campers caught in the midst of one of the California fires.


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Military.com has more details:

More than 200 campers were trapped near a boat dock on Shaver Lake in California's Fresno County over the Labor Day weekend, encircled by flames and a blinding wall of wildfire smoke....Chief Warrant Officer 5 Joseph Rosamond, piloting a California Army National Guard CH-47 Chinook, had already made the decision to try to put his helicopter down close by the desperate campers on Sept. 5. So had CWO 5 Kipp Goding, pilot of a California Guard UH-60 Black Hawk, who had linked up with Rosamond's aircraft and was trailing him to the scene, weaving through peaks rising to 7,000 feet and then dropping down to a valley leading to the dock...
Emergency crews on the ground from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, radioed to Rosamond that it was too risky. The Creek Fire in the Sierra National Forest was out of control and they should put down at a nearby ranch miles away and wait for the smoke to clear, they were told...

italics mine. 

and not just one time: They returned twice to get everyone out: 214 people were rescued, some badly burned.

this was done at night.

the pilots used night vision goggles to let them see despite the smoke.

if you read my previous post about helicopters, you know that it is dangerous trying to pilot in an area with poor visibility: but add to this wind currents due to the irregular terrain and the fire updrafts.

And once they landed, to get everyone out, they essentially overloaded the helicopters so they could get everyone out...

The article mentions the names of not just the pilots but the names of the crews who risked their lives in the rescue.

on the Chinook:

Chief Warrant Officer 5 Joseph Rosamond, the pilot.

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Brady Hlebain, the Chinook's co-pilot,

Sgts. George Esquivel, flight engineer.

Cameron Powell, flight engineers on the Chinook, 

Black Hawk crew: 

CWO 5 Kipp Goding, pilot 

Warrant Officer 1 One Xiong 

\Chief Warrant Officer 2 Irvin Hernandez.

Thank you for your service.

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update (9 17)

ThatAin'tHellBlog reports the 7 Nat Guardsmen received the  Distinguished Flying Cross



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