Page 1 - Desert Lightning News So. AZ Edition, February 2022
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Vol. 15, No. 2 Serving Southern Arizona’s military community, including Davis-Monthan Air Force Base February 2022
Look for expanded coverage in the digital edition of Desert Lightning News
online at www.aerotechnews.com/davis-monthanafb/.
INSIDE Rescue Group Airmen help save hiker
in Chiricahua National Monument
StorIES
Future Guardians, 3
By Senior Airman four aircrew members and two
Super Bowl flyover, 4 ALex MiLLeR pararescuemen from the 48th RQS.
“The Cochise County Search
355th Wing and Rescue Team stayed with the
Hoops and Honor, 5 A joint rescue mission with the unconscious patient until we were
563rd Rescue Group, the Arizona able to arrive the next morning,”
Joint Training, 8 Cochise County Sheriff’s Office said U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Justin
Search and Rescue Team and the Wood, 48th Rescue Squadron para-
Arizona Department of Public rescueman. “Due to the terrain, we
FEAtUrE Safety saved an unconscious and had to hoist down from 150 feet off
severely hypothermic 67-year-old of the ground to the patient’s posi-
hiker at the Chiricahua National tion to get him situated into our
Monument in Wilcox, Arizona, Jan. stretcher and hoisted him back up
8, 2022. into the helicopter.”
CCSOSAR were notified of a The HH-60 hovered at an eleva-
missing hiker around 7 p.m., Jan. tion of around 7,300 feet with wind
7, and hiked towards his last gusts up to 30 mph in the steep,
known location along with the AZ- rocky terrain of the Chiricahua
DPS’s rescue helicopter searching Mountains, the largest mountain
from the air. The hiker was located range of Arizona’s Sky Mountains.
and needed to be extracted, but the This added to the challenge of res-
AZDPS’s rescue helicopter could cuing the hiker.
not land due to the high winds and The HH-60 pilots and enlisted
tall trees in the area. The CCSO- aviators were graduates of the
SAR needed a helicopter with a Army’s High Altitude Aviation
Airman 1st Class Josey Blades rescue hoist. Training School (HAATS), which
Green FlaG-West The 563rd RQG’s 55th Rescue was critical to the safe and expe-
See Page 6 & 7 Squadron was notified at 3:49 a.m., dient hoist work. This training is
Jan 8, and responded with their designed to increase situational
HH-60G Pave Hawk equipped with
a rescue hoist with a 200-foot cable, See rESCuE, Page 2
Continue to get Davis-Monthan Courtesy photo
Air Force Base latest news and U.S. Air Force pararescuemen from
information from these sources: the 48th Rescue Squadron hoist an
http://www.aerotechnews. unconscious and severely hypothermic
com/davis-monthanafb 67-year-old hiker into an HH-60G Pave
and social media
Desert Lightning News Hawk from the 55th RQS at the Chirica-
hua National Monument in Wilcox, Arizo-
Date of publication na, Jan. 8, 2022. This was a joint rescue
First Friday mission with the 563rd Rescue Group,
the Arizona Cochise County Sheriff’s
of the month Office Search and Rescue Team and the
Submission deadline Arizona Department of Public Safety to
15th day of the month save the hiker.
prior to date of publication LEFT: Airmen from the 55th Rescue
Veterans Generation Squadron pose for a photo
at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ari-
zona, Jan. 12, 2022. These maintainers
Tell us Your Story prepared the 55th Rescue Squadron’s
Active-duty, Reserve, Retirees HH-60G Pave Hawk in record time in
All military branches are included order to save an unconscious and se-
Email name, phone number and a verely hypothermic hiker at the Chir-
brief description of your service to icahua National Monument in Wilcox,
jenna@aerotechnews.com
Senior Airman Alex Miller Arizona.
