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Show Saving lives has been business of Hill Air Force Base group that will soon be disbanded copter hovering above the rescue area. It would be a sitting duck." Hill's 40th ARRS has responsibility responsi-bility for six detachments, including includ-ing Det. 4 which is here. Colonel Lewis oversees the operation of Det. 24, Fairchild AFB, Wash., where the Air Force's survival training school is located. Three other detachments are located in the west: Det. 22, Mountain Home AFB, Idaho; Det. 5, Edwards AFB. Calif.; and Det. 6, Holloman AFB, N.M. "Just about anywhere you go there is helicopter rescue support. Although the mission is different, there is some capability." "Our old helicopters will be used at other bases," said the colonel. "They will be shipped to F.E. War ren AFB, Wyo., and Malmstrom AFB, Mont., to support Strategic Air Command's Minuleman missile mis-sile operation." According to the colonel, rescue and recovery has been an essential part of the peacetime mission. "The ability to perform these lifesaving missions brings with it a great deal of satisfaction. There is no greater reward than seeing the . smile on the face of a person whom you have saved from certain death," said the colonel. "It is with great reluctance that they will close our doors. Until that time comes, we will be here to do our best to live . up to the old Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service motto: 'That others may live'." I Members of the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron make a regular practice of saving lives of fellow airmen and civilians, using large helicopters like this one. By GARY R. BLODCETT HILL AFB Saving lives is their business. Detachment 4 of the 40th Aerospace Aeros-pace Rescue and Recovery Squadron Squad-ron stationed at this northern Utah air base is kept busy helping Air Force members, or assisting search and rescue missions in the neighboring communities. Critical and complex rescue missions mis-sions have been a hallmark of the 40th ARRS for several years. Last year, this group participated in IS rescue missions saving 1 1 lives. Their heroic and life-saving missions mis-sions will soon be a thing of the past for the Utah-based unit, one of six similar search and rescue units based primarily in the west. Within the next few months, the 40th ARRS will be deactivated and Air Force-aided civilian rescue operations will come to a halt for the local unit, which is a part of the 39th Air Rescue Recovery Wing of the 23rd Air Force, Military Airlift Command. Over the years, Det. 4 with its pilots, crews, pararescue members and all its support groups have helped save hundreds of aircraft crash victims, injured hikers and lost skiers in Utah and around the Mountain West. It could all begin with the bone-chilling bone-chilling message: "We've crashed and we have serious injuries to crew and passengers.'" The distress call was heard by a passing Pan Am airliner. While the Pan Am crew relayed the message to Air Route Traffic Control in Los Angeles, a nearby Air Force T-38 pilot listened. Breaking off from his training mission, the pilot searched for the crash site and radioed the coordinates. Flight services at Cedar City were contacted and rescue helicopters helicop-ters from Las Vegas Lifeflight, Dugway Proving Ground and Nel-lis Nel-lis AFB, Nev., responded, but didn't have the capability to complete com-plete the mission. That's when Det. 4 was called on for assistance. Thanks to the help of Det. 4 crews, four southern Utah residents resi-dents injured in the crash of a Cessna Cess-na 172 aircraft were lifted from the icy grip of death in the mountains. The Det. 4 crew included UH-1N UH-1N helicopter pilot, Capt, Ed LaRouche, co-pilot Maj. Mike Scott, flight engineer SSgt. Jeff Dill and paramedics MSgt. Mike Brown and A1C Gerard Smitty, who were lowered below the treetops for medical assistance to the injured. Those rescued were Donald and Jackie Stoneking, their son and pilot James and his 2-year-old son Scott. "It's a miracle they survived, crashing on that mountain," said U.S. Air Force Search and Rescue Coordinator TSgt. O.W. Satter-field, Satter-field, Scott AFB, 111. "It was quite a lifesaving feat." As the rescue began, chopper . crews hovered at 9,500 feet over an open bowl area, with the Det. 4 crew at approximately 130 feet above the crash site, while tree tops nearly scraped their feet. "We were lowered about 150 feet," said Sergeant Brown. "Our equipment was lowered and we began be-gan working on Mrs. Stoneking." "They were cold and were suffering suf-fering from the elements," said Sergeant Brown. "I would have to say the grandparents were in the first stages of hypothermia." Highlights of recent Det. 4 rescues res-cues include: July 12, 1985: Search and rescue of two Army Guard UH-1N pilots who had crashed into the Great Salt Lake. Visibility was poor, compounded by three-to five-foot waves. Both survived and were transported to civilian rescue teams on land. Oct. 19, 1986: Search and rescue of a 76-year-old male civilian who had fallen while on a hunting trip in the mountains. He was treated for injuries and transported to a local hospital. Dec. 29, 1986: Search and rescue of four civilians who had been involved in-volved in a light aircraft crash. After Af-ter emergency medical attention, they were transported for further treatment. "Our people will be facing different diffe-rent assignments and missions," said Col. Mike Lewis, 40th ARRS commander. "Most will stay within with-in 23rd Air Force and in the heli-copter heli-copter field. That's something i we've tried hard to maintain. The demands of our mission are much different now. Rescue itself is changing and I don't think we can be a 'you call, we haul' type of operation any longer." According to Colonel Lewis, the UH-1N aircraft doesn't meet combat com-bat mission requirements as well as they did in the past. "It is for that reason that when the Air Force was tasked by congressional budget reductions, re-ductions, it decided the 40th was expendable," he said. "The Hueys are too slow and too noisy," said the colonel. "Combat rescue has changed. It' a 'go in low and fast' type of rescue. With the enemy having hand-held rockets, rock-ets, we can't afford to have a heli- |