Airman Goes Army for a Day

Photo By Senior Airman Daniel Crosier | Aerial view of flood damage and assessment from UH-72 Pilotted by Chief Warrant Officer Shaun Hollins and Chief Warrant Officer Scott Englebrick with video surveillence performed by Sergeant First Class Marty Ortiz.  

STOCKTON, CA, UNITED STATES

02.19.2017

Story by Senior Airman Daniel Crosier 

146 Airlift Wing, California Air National Guard

With recent flooding in northern California, many California Army and Air National Guard service members were tasked with assisting in the initial and follow up efforts. When you work in Public Affairs with a joint forces, you might have been Air National Guard your whole career, but you have the chance get tasked to do something you never thought you would; fly with an Army National Guard crew on a UH-72 Lakota doing surveys of flooded areas and other points of interest.
The trip started off by first driving from State Headquarters in Sacramento to the Stockton Army National Guard Armory at the Stockton Airport. Once there, I met up with Sgt. 1st Class Marty Ortiz, the crew chief, CWO Shaun Hollins, pilot, and CWO Scott Englebrick, pilot, all of the 3rd Battalion, 140th Aviation Regiment. Ortiz and Englebrick are out of the Company A, Security and Support division and Hollins is out of the Headquarters and Headquarters Company. Their mission; fly over areas of Merced County, assess flooding, and look at other points of interest to assist the Merced County Fire Department in determining if they are going to have potential problems with the next rounds of rain.
Once things were readied by crew chief Ortiz, Englebrick and Hollins took their places as the pilots, with Ortiz operating the video equipment. And then, we did something I had never done before, took off in a helicopter.
They warned me it’s usually a bumpy take off, and today, due to some decent winds and light rain, would be no different. The start was a little rockier than I was used to, flying in C-130s and regular passenger jets, but it was exciting. Seeing the ground be there, and then the fast ascent almost straight up was a little intimidating, but exhilarating. It causes your stomach to sink a little, but you feel the rush of adrenaline keeping you from getting air sick.
We flew for about 45 minutes, before it was time to land at Castle Airfield, in Atwater, CA, to meet up with California Air National Guard Major Nick Edwards and Jeremy Rahn, the Battalion Chief/Deputy Director of Administration for the Merced County Fire Department and Office of Emergency Services. From there, Edwards and Rahn went over the mission with Englebrick and Hollins, while Ortiz ensured the Lakota was refueled for the mission which would last a few hours. Edwards went over the plan for the mission, and had key areas he wanted Hollins and Englebrick to fly over with Ortiz taking care of all of the filming.
And then, we were off to our first point on the map. We followed the Merced River from Merced up through Snelling to Lake McLure. The evidence of flooding was almost overwhelming. Fields were covered in water, houses had become their own private islands. Cars were close to being submerged, and fences were now invisible. A race track was seen, could no longer be used. As we went further up the river, the lake could be seen at high levels, far higher than can currently be seen on Google earth.
While their primary mission was to just observation, the crew is always on alert. Watching for any stuck vehicles or persons that were trapped by the flooding. CW2 Englebrick stated how he didn’t mind these missions, but he liked it better when he got the chance to help someone in need.
On our flight back, we observed that you could still make out the original path of the river made by the trees. The water was flowing so fast, we were shocked more bridges weren’t washed out.
All in all, it was a mundane, standard mission for the Lakota crew, but for this Airman, it was the chance of a lifetime. To not only work closely with a steadfast California Army National Guard crew, but to fly in a helicopter, and document how these Army crews are working hard to assist with operations and intelligence to prevent repeats of problems that happened with the last storms.

• Date Taken: 02.19.2017
• Date Posted: 02.20.2017 21:31
• Story ID: 224110
• Location: STOCKTON, CA, US