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Rescuing Two Downed Pilots Part of a Day’s Work For HS-3 Crew
Story Number: NNS030129-09
Release Date: 1/29/2003 5:22:00 PM
By Chief Journalist (SW) Aaron Strickland, USS Theodore Roosevelt Public Affairs
ABOARD USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT, At Sea (NNS) -- “Aircraft in the water. Aircraft in the water.”
The words of USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) Commanding Officer Capt. R.J. O’Hanlon spoken over the ship’s main communications intercom chilled the warmth of a Caribbean Sunday afternoon. Aircraft were returning from the day’s flights as part of its Composite Training Unit Exercise. The ship’s crew had expected to wind down the day by watching the Super Bowl via satellite.
That changed at 5:28 p.m., Atlantic Standard Time.
An F-14D Tomcat from Fighter Squadron 213 went down in the water two miles short of the flight deck, but the pilot and radar intercept officer (RIO) had ejected cleanly from the aircraft. Now, it was up to a rescue crew from Helicopter Squadron 3, based out of Jacksonville, Fla., and deployed aboard TR.
The helicopter assigned to patrol during air operations was conducting its annual Naval Aviation Training and Operating Procedures Standardization (NATOPS) certification nearby. Along with the normal crew of pilot Lt. Jason Young, Lt. John Smiley, Antisubmarine Warfare Specialist 1st Class (AC) Rafael Garcia, and search-and-rescue swimmer Antisubmarine Warfare Specialist 2nd Class (AC) Aaron Albright, Strike Fighter Squadron 201’s flight surgeon, Cmdr. Howard Eliason, happened to be along for the certification flight.
The crew heard the call that the plane might be in trouble and turned its attention away from its training to the emerging situation.
Both Young and Smiley saw the plane splash into the ocean. After coordinating with the ship, they headed to site where the pilots hit the water. It took two minutes for the helicopter to be over the pilots, ready for rescue.
Ironically, part of the NATOPS flight Sunday was a simulated search-and-rescue (SAR) while simulating mechanical failure in the helicopter.
“We practice daylight SAR every day we’re out here,” said Young. “Since we had very good visual cues (clear horizon, calm ocean), everything went very smoothly…, flawlessly.”
“This was exciting,” Albright said of this, his first rescue. “The situation was ideal, almost as easy as what they taught us in “A” school.”
Garcia, who operated the hoist to bring victims out of the water, said the hardest part of the rescue was to keep the parachutes from getting in the way of the rescue.
“My first task is to get them in and see if they are okay, get their floats off, feed info to the pilots and get the second person in,” he said. “At the same time, I’m keeping the pilots away from the chutes.
“We train for this every day so that it will be routine.”
The pilot of the downed craft was in the water five minutes before being brought aboard the helicopter, and the RIO, who was able to put out a survival raft to await rescue, was aboard in another five minutes. The helicopter was back to TR 18 minutes after the plane was reported down.
The two Tomcat crew members walked with Albright to TR’s medical department for treatment and observation.
Eliason said that he was impressed with the courage of the rescue crew. He noted Albright had “no hesitation at all” in getting in the water in spite of obstacles and hazards of being in the water with downed pilots.
“This team was so well prepared for this rescue,” said Eliason. “There was a lot of training and work that went into this rescue. Actually, it was a great honor to see the professionalism of the Sailors and Officers and how they handled everything.”
Garcia summed up the unassuming attitude of the entire aircrew and its work in rescuing the two Tomcat crew members.
“I’m glad we were able to make the difference in a couple of people who were having a bad day,” Garcia said.
For related news, visit the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) Navy NewsStand page at www.news.navy.mil/local/cvn71.
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