CAMP DENALI, Alaska—The Alaska National Guard is prepping to conduct a major search-and-rescue exercise in a remote area northwest of Bethel Feb 7-9 to test sustained rescue recovery operations for a simulated 737 plane crash.
Saving a life in remote regions of Alaska under severe conditions is something the Alaska National Guard has proven time and time again, but being prepared to rescue 25 or 50 lives in a remote region, requires practice and coordination to utilize all the resources available effectively when they are needed most.
“This is a major test of our ability to save lives in rural Alaska under Arctic and severe conditions,” said Brig. Gen. Leon “Mike” Bridges, assistant adjutant general-Army, Alaska National Guard. “The Alaska National Guard, U.S. Coast Guard, along with civilian partners are working together to plan and conduct rescue recovery operations using specially assembled equipment, multiple air and ground transportation assets and personnel of several skill sets to simulate a large scale plane crash, with multiple survivors, treat them in the field and recover them to advanced medical care.”
The scenario will start when the 11th Rescue Coordination Center receives word that a 737 goes down, with an unknown amount of survivors, in a remote area that first responders can’t get to by roads.
The RCC will request immediate support from the Alaska Air National Guard to get an initial Guardian Angel team on-scene to assess the situation and request a large-scale support team and arctic sustainment package to treat and recover all of the survivors.
“For mass casualty events, you need to think outside the regular search-and-rescue ‘triad’ [210th, 211th and 212th Rescue Squadrons, Alaska Air National Guard] to ensure communications between all the agencies are working effectively,” said Lt. Col. Blake Gettys, 176th Wing Operations Group commander, Alaska Air National Guard. “The only way this will work is if we use every airframe the operation group has available.”
Utilizing the Alaska Air National Guard’s C-130 Hercules and U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster, the Alaska Air National Guard will airdrop pararescuemen, Alaska Army National Guardsmen and equipment near the crash site.
“Alaska Army National Guardsmen with C Company, 1-297th Reconnaissance and Surveillance Squadron will provide logistics sustainment and support to the medical specialists so they can focus on patient care,” Bridges said. “They are specially trained to scout, establish and support remote, hostile drop and pickup zones anywhere in the world and under any condition.”
After providing medical care and stabilizing the victims, the Alaska Air National Guard will recover the survivors with the HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter and HC-130 King, in what Gettys says, will be the first joint Alaska Air National Guard, Alaska Army National Guard major search-and-rescue exercise.
“The idea is that we can do this anywhere in our area of response, all the way up to Barrow if needed, but we need more than just the rescue ‘triad’,” Gettys said. “Everyone will have to work together, and we have to lean forward and build search-and-rescue tactics and procedures to ensure we are prepared, to include the Coast Guard air dropping a re-supply bundle during the exercise. During an actual event, communication can hinder execution, so this will help work out the kinks.”
In a region where weather is often a factor in safety and ability to respond, the Alaska Air National Guard is also employing tactics not utilized anywhere else in the Air Force, such as combo drops, where equipment and personnel depart the aircraft on the same pass over a target area.
“We’re the only Guard C-17 unit out there that’s doing search-and-rescue airdrop, and we’re the only unit in the Air Force doing combo drops with a C-17; every place else they do two passes, but we don’t have the luxury of doing that, if we don’t get to pick our weather,” Gettys said. “So if it’s six- to eight-foot seas at night in the north Pacific, you don’t want to send out your equipment load, race track around and send out your Guardian Angel team, they could be separated by half a mile and they’ll drown and never get to it. So you have to send them out right behind the loads, keep them in sight, to make sure they can get to it. That’s why we’re doing it differently.”
Although this exercise will be conducted over land, employing combo drops will show that the Alaska Air National Guard developed the idea and it worked effectively, according to Gettys. The exercise will also include delays to test multiple scenarios.
“There’s going to be some simulation in the exercise, in that we could get there in about eight hours to pluck the survivors out and bring them to a hospital, but we want to test the arctic survival package,” Gettys said. “So we’ll be out there for an extended amount of time, to see if we have enough food, enough sleeping bags, enough fuel for the heaters because it’s one thing to set up in a parking lot and it’s another to actually use it for a prolonged period of time in the field. Kind of like a script before a football game, you want to see everything go wrong in practice, so it doesn’t go wrong in the game.”
The desired outcome from this exercise is to make each participant more capable, sure and ready in the event of an emergency of this type. Bringing together multiple organizations to prepare for a large-scale disaster is the best way to be ready when citizens need the Alaska National Guard to save lives, reduce suffering and protect them.
“The military is exceptional in our after action reviews on what went right, what went wrong and how to improve our mission execution the next time,” Bridges said. “We will capture the best practices, work on preventing anything that might not work so well, and be that much more ready for the next training event, or far more importantly, be ready for when it really happens and we are needed.”
