— from Mike Welding of NAS Whidbey Island —
Thurston County Sheriff’s Office contacted Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island’s Search and Rescue (SAR) early Saturday morning, July 25, to help locate a missing 14-year-old boy and his dog near Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
Operating in tandem with the sheriff’s office, the five-person SAR helicopter crew began their search around 6:30 a.m. and spent two hours conducting an airborne search of the area. The boy and his dog had been missing since 6 p.m. the prior evening. “We remained on –scene and conducted multiple search legs and patterns while talking to ground crews for almost two hours until we had to leave and refuel,” said Lt. Erin Hittle, SAR co-pilot.
As the SAR crew departed, ground crews reported that they made contact with the survivor who relayed that he had heard the sound of the helicopter and was able to follow the sound to a road. “There was a great amount of coordination and cooperation with the Sheriff’s Department, the ground search parties and our crew, which led to a favorable outcome for all involved,” said Hittle.
Last year, NAS Whidbey Island SAR launched on 18 rescues, 10 medical evacuations and seven searches, resulting in 47 lives delivered to higher level care. This year they have launched on five rescues, nine medical evacuations and four searches, resulting in 15 lives delivered to higher level care.
The Navy SAR unit operates three MH-60 helicopters from NAS Whidbey as search and rescue platforms for the EA-18G aircraft as well as other squadrons and personnel assigned to the installation. The base also has an agreement to assist Washington State with medical evacuations and search and rescue activities.
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Way to go Navy. They have flow island folks off to hospitals when our regular evacuation flights can not come (insurance reasons I understand).
Everyone should realize that these rescue assets are at Whidbey to support Navy aircraft operations. No aircraft, no assets, no rescues.
So, this is one positive thing to think about as we try to figure out how to reduce the jet noise. Getting rid of the aircraft would likely eliminate these rescue operations.