||| FROM THOMAS MILLS for NAS WHIDBEY |||
NAVAL AIR STATION WHIDBEY ISLAND, Wash. – A Search and Rescue (SAR) team from Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island conducted a medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) from Orcas Island in the early morning hours of Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021.
The SAR team launched from NAS Whidbey Island at 5:30 a.m. to pick up a 77-year-old female patient with congestive heart failure at Orcas Island Airport. The SAR crew landed at Orcas Island approximately 20 minutes later, picked up the patient, then flew her to St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, Wash.
This is the fifth mission NAS Whidbey Island SAR has conducted this calendar year, which includes three MEDEVACs, one rescue and one search.
The Navy SAR unit operates three MH-60S helicopters from NAS Whidbey Island as search and rescue/medical evacuation (SAR/MEDEVAC) platforms for the EA-18G aircraft as well as other squadrons and personnel assigned to the installation. Pursuant to the National SAR Plan of the United States, the unit may also be used for civil SAR/MEDEVAC needs to the fullest extent practicable on a non-interference basis with primary military duties according to applicable national directives, plans, guidelines and agreements; specifically, the unit may launch in response to tasking by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (based on a Washington State Memorandum of Understanding) for inland missions, and/or tasking by the United States Coast Guard for all other aeronautical and maritime regions, when other assets are unavailable.
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