17 Soldiers with the Arizona Army National Guard 2-285th Assault Helicopter Battalion attended a life-saving award presentation at Papago Park Military Reservation in Phoenix, Ariz. in order to recognize three of their fellow service members on May 1, 2021. Aircrew members were tasked by law enforcement to conduct a rescue that required an aircraft with the ability to descend down safely to extract hikers stranded in inclement weather in Sedona, Ariz. on January 25, 2021. They also hoisted up members of a local rescue team in the Haribo Canyon. It was a difficult two-day rescue mission that presented small windows of opportunity for extraction, but the AZ Guard was ready and prepared at a moment’s notice.
The three hikers stranded in snow near Sedona were in a tight spot. After days of sub-freezing temperatures stuck in a rock crevice without food, they were showing signs of frostbite.Â
As they braced for another cruel night, they heard the whomp-whomp-whomp of an Arizona National Guard Blackhawk Helicopter piloted by Maj. Shannon Lancaster. After a few harrowing minutes last January, the hikers were aboard the aircraft and headed to safety.
âThey got a jolt of motivation when they saw us,â said Lancaster, a Mesa resident who has spent a decade flying helicopters for the Guard. âIt definitely gets you going when you put your training to work and you know youâre saving peopleâs lives.â