When a hunter was mauled by a grizzly bear in the remote Alaskan wilderness, he was literally in the middle of nowhere. There wasn't a highway within 150 miles.
When word of the attack reached Tech. Sgt. Katelyn Magnuson she knew the hunter only had once chance to survive. As the senior search and rescue coordinator at the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson she began spinning up the assets needed to put to Air Force pararescuemen directly on target. Time was of the essence as the hunter was in critical condition and had lost a lot of blood.
The HC-130J Combat King II from 211th Rescue Squadron was the airframe of choice. Pararescuemen Senior Master Sgt. Jeremy Diola and Master Sgt. Cody Inman received the mission after their commander gave it the green light. Pararescue (PJs for short) have a two-year training pipeline when they are trained on everything from high altitude parachuting to combat diving, with a heavy emphasis on trauma medicine and search and rescue tactics.
They are known for rescuing downed pilots behind enemy lines and recovering MIA soldiers in places like Afghanistan. PJs also work with the Special Operations community and even assist NASA if they need help recovering astronauts during a water landing.
Diola and Inman suited up and lugged their 100-pound rucksacks onto the back of the HC-130J before taking off.
Parachute jumps are rare, even for elite Special Operations troops due to how many things can potentially go wrong. Years prior, a squadron sized element from Delta Force had planned to conduct a military free-fall jump in Afghanistan but the wind speeds were such that planners felt that the squadron would end up spread out across an entire valley so the mission was scrubbed.
But for this rescue operation in Alaska, the stars had aligned it seemed. “It was one of those times when those risk factors were absent,” Diola said. “It was a lower risk from the jump side, and the benefits of getting there faster — even if it’s minutes — made for the course of action we took.”
Diola and Inman exited the aircraft at 3,000 feet above ground level and used the toggles on their parachutes to steer themselves to the impromptu dropzone, landing about 500 meters away from the injured hunter. They quickly moved towards him and confirmed their initial suspicions that his situation was dire.
“Our assessment he was severely injured — what we call a cat alpha or an urgent surgical patient — was confirmed,” Inman said.
The PJs treated and packaged their patient and soon an HH-60 helicopter arrived. They boarded and flew 30 minutes to the nearby town of Galena where they then crossloaded the patient onto the HC-130, then waiting for them at an airfield. They then flew directly to Anchorage where the hunter was loaded onto a UH-60 helicopter and flown directly to the emergency room at the Providence Alaska Medical Center.
Thanks to the hard work of the PJs, aviators, search and rescue coordinators, and others involved in the effort, the patient survived. The rescue mission itself also serves as a proof of concept, demonstrating that special operators can utilize the military free fall infiltration technique in small teams to great effect if commanders are open to the possibility of using it.
https://connectingvets.radio.com/articles/pararescuemen-jump-into-alaska-to-save-victim-of-bear-attack