Whidbey Angels

UNITED STATES

10.01.2017

Story by Petty Officer 2nd Class Ignacio Perez      

Navy Production Division - Defense Media Activity

From the frigid waters of the pacific north west to the dense tree canopies of the Olympic forest to the towering mountain faces of the cascade mountain range Sailors from the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island Search and Rescue (NASWI SAR) with the responsibility of providing 24 hour SAR for the fixed winged assets in the area and while most squadrons in the fleet are multi-missioned platforms Whidbey Island SAR one focus is on rescue.
“Generally helicopter squadrons around the fleet whether they’re a Romeo or Sierra Squadron they’re going to have a multi-mission platform so those helicopters, pilots and flight crews need to be able to do a multitude set of missions, from the Romeo side which is hunting subs and possible rescues, where the Sierra side goes from recuse, logistics and anti-mine warfare and unfortunately they don’t get to really ever focus on one,” said Lt. Chris Pitcher, operations officer of NAWSI SAR. “Up here we have a bread and butter, our job is to go out and save people, whether it’s pulling them out form the water or from the side of a mountain, and we train almost every day for those different scenarios so when those scenarios do pop up we’re not surprised and we can get the job done and get that person to a higher level of care.”
Because of this ability to focus on one mission, NAWSI SAR is only squadron in the fleet that is outfitted with an advance life support helicopter platform. Allowing them to not only save pilots in case of emergencies but also help bring a higher level of care to anyone in need.
“The biggest thing is the mission set, the area we support and the medical capability we provide. We strive to give the best possible level of care to our patients, so we are a fully outfitted advance life-support helicopter platform, just the same way you would call 911 for one of your family members,’ said Wayne Papalski, NAWSI SAR flight paramedics leading chief petty officer. “We strive to mirror ourselves with the civilian community so that way we can have that continuum of care that started in the civilian community and continue to a local hospital.”
With the millions of visitors the Pacific North West sees every year, NAWSI SAR has performed recuses from the East Cascades to the south western parts of Olympic national park, and as well in Idaho, Canada and Oregon. The vast landscape has made the Sailors learn to quickly adapt to changing environment.
“The terrain here is pretty diverse you have the ocean that can range from mid 50’s to high 40’s, you have mountain ranges that can have some of the densest forest with 200 feet firs to some the rockiest shier rock cliff faces that you can imagine. And once you get past the other side of the cascades it turns from this nice coastal 60 degrees here in Whidbey Island into this dry desert that reaches 110 to 112 degreess,” said Pitcher. “It just depends on what the mission calls for and be ready to be able to respond to any kind of situation because obviously if the jets go that far we need to be able to respond.”
The unpredictable landscape has made AWS2 Francisco Toledo learn to be uncomfortable he says. .
“It doesn’t matter who you are or where you came from we kind of check your ego at the door, we have our own training syllabus so when you check in you start from scratch using what you learned previously in the fleet to come up here to make yourself a better aviator or crewman,” said Papalski. “But we have a pretty robust training syllabus that takes you throughout the entire state to all of our local working areas and pretty much any situation that you will probably face as a qualified crewman or pilot we try to put you in.”
Because of the level difficulty and danger the job Sailors have said it leaves a lasting memory most will look back at their career and would consider it to have been some of the best years they have had.
“Looking back at my four years here I’ll you tell this is the best command I’ve been at. It’s just been an amazing and humbling experience, getting to do what I got to do up here, and what some of my brothers and sisters in the other room got to do to help people,” said Papalski. “Really does just, when you look back at your career 20 or 30 years from now and know that you actually did something that was giving more than you were taking, and it means a lot.”

• Date Taken: 10.01.2017
• Date Posted: 12.28.2017 12:38
• Story ID: 260308
• Location: US