A RESCUE IN THE ALASKAN WILDERNESS: GUARDSMEN SAVED 13 AFTER A SNOWSTORM AND PLANE CRASH

摘要

It could have been a scene ripped from an action film: Two simultaneous, high-stakes rescue missions. A late-spring blizzard in the inhospitable Alaskan mountains. Ill mountain climbers. A crashed plane. And a scramble for aircraft to carry 13 people to safety. That Hollywood-esque adventure played out in real life over Memorial Day weekend this year, earning the Air National Guardsmen of the 176th Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage the 2021 Jolly Green Rescue Mission of the Year award from the Jolly Green Association. More than 75 airmen across 10 units in the wing responded to the dual emergencies in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, described in Air Force press releases on June 7 and Sept. 29. The 13.2 million-acre park is as large as Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park and Switzerland combined. "Generating these sorties required all hands on deck as weekend-alert maintenance personnel were called in to repair and inspect nearly our entire fleet for continuous, extended-range rescue operations," said Chief Master Sgt. Eric Chester, the 176th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron superintendent. "Our maintenance teams generated more than 250 percent of our normal aircraft capacity."