TN National Guard rescues individuals from Great Smoky Mountains

GATLINBURG, Tenn. – The Tennessee Army National Guard rescued a sick individual from Silers Bald Shelter, near the Tennessee state border, in the Great Smoky Mountains on the afternoon of April 7.

This is the third rescue this year for the 1-230th Assault Helicopter Battalion. The unit rescued another sick individual from the same location on March 29.

Each mission, the patients were hoisted into an HH-60 medical evacuation helicopter and flown from the shelter to the University of Tennessee hospital.

In the March rescue, the National Guard helicopter departed Joint Base McGhee-Tyson in Knoxville, Tenn., at 9:15am and the entire mission was complete within an hour. Due to weather in April, it took about an hour and a half.

Last year, the Tennessee aviators completed five rescues, an airplane crash recovery, and performed medical evacuations in South Carolina in response to hurricane relief efforts.

 

Staff Sgt. Giovanni DeZuani, a flight paramedic with the 1/230th Assault Helicopter Battalion, prepares a sick individual to be hoisted on board one of the unit’s medical evacuation helicopters on April 7. The individual was rescued from the Silers Bald Shelter in the Great Smoky Mountains.

 

Staff Sgt. Giovanni DeZuani, a flight paramedic with the 1/230th Assault Helicopter Battalion, and the patient are hoisted to the helicopter with Sgt. 1st Class Tracy Banta, also a flight paramedic with the 1/230th AHB tending the tag-line to keep them steady during a rescue mission from Silers Bald Shelter in the Great Smoky Mountains on April 7.