Rescue center lynchpin to saving lives

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Wes Wright
  • JBER Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  It was a perfect sunny day the morning of Aug. 8, 2010. As a recreational bush pilot and avid golfer, Don Erbey's agenda called for a quick flight up to Knik Glacier with a handful of friends and then a tee time of 2 p.m. It was going to be a good day.

A Navy veteran and current 773d Civil Engineer Squadron power production section work leader, Erbey took off into the crisp morning air with clear skies and a planeload of excited tourists. Spirits were high and chatter abuzz as they climbed up the glacier approaching Lake George, located in a valley surrounded by jagged mountains.

Out of nowhere the weather changed. What were clear skies moments before was suddenly a fog that allowed near zero visibility. An experienced pilot, Erbey knew he had to get out of the area, and fast.

"Normally in a situation like that, you do a 180 and get out of there," Erbey said. "But due to the weather system that was settling in, the aircraft was being forced down. My altimeter showed I was dropping rapidly."

As Erbey started his turn, he hoped and prayed he had enough altitude to clear a turn over the glacier and get out of the valley. He did not.

The ground rose up fast. Erbey did his best to get the plane into some sort of landing position with only seconds to brace for collision.

Impact. The plane hit unevenly, ripping the right strut off the aircraft and causing the 300 horsepower Cherokee Six plane to skip across the glacier before coming to a stop.

Miraculously, the worst injury was a gash on Erbey's nose. All souls were still breathing.
Erbey took stock of his people and resources, analyzing what to do next. He noticed his emergency locator beacon, which is supposed to go off automatically, did not. He manually activated it and began calling for help. His calls were answered. A fellow pilot heard his calls and began relaying them to rescue officials.

His locator beacon was picked up by the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center located on JBER, setting off a chain of precise responses by highly trained military professionals. Weather and terrain made for hellish rescue conditions for the responders. In all, three different aircraft and four pararescuemen, or PJs, spent four days assisting Erbey and his passengers to get off the mountain.

Erbey missed his tee time that day, but everyone made it safely back to civilization with "more bruised pride than anything else," as Erbey put it.

Making it off the mountain would not have been possible without the hard work of everyone involved, but none more crucial than the coordination efforts of the Alaska Air Guardsmen with the AKRCC.

SAVING LIVES

Since 1994, the AKRCC has helped coordinate the rescue of more than 2,065 lives through 5,120 missions.

The primary mission of the Alaska RCC is to provide a 24-hour rescue coordination capability in support of military and civil aviation search and rescue needs in the Alaska search and rescue region. Additionally, the center may provide assistance in the prosecution of humanitarian rescue in Alaska, other countries and to SAR agencies in other SRRs if it does not conflict with AKRCC's primary mission. Ultimately, the role of the center in civil rescue is in direct support of the National SAR Plan, a cabinet-level federal plan. Representing Alaska's federal inland search and rescue coordinator, the AKRCC serves as the single agency responsible for coordinating on-land and aviation federal SAR activities in the mainland of Alaska.

The Alaska RCC is located on JBER and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The center directly ties in to the Federal Aviation Administration's alerting system and the U.S. Mission Control Center. In addition to the Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking information, the AKRCC computer system contains resource files that list federal, state and volunteer civilian organizations, which can conduct or assist in SAR efforts throughout the state and neighboring regions.

As one of only two Air Force rescue coordination centers in the U.S., the AKRCC operates differently than any other search and rescue program.

"The Alaska Search and Rescue program is one of the most highly sought after plans because we have excellent partner agency relationships," said Robert Carte, AKRCC superintendent and a 20-year Alaska Guard veteran. "In the Lower 48, SAR is controlled by county sheriffs, so there is a lot of coordination that has to go on, whereas in Alaska we are the central location to help out state agencies."

BEHIND THE SCENES

"We perform an active duty mission with title 32 Air Guard status," Carte said. "Twelve full time guardsmen - six rated officers pulling double duty that fly for the 176th Wing and six enlisted Airmen."

Those 12 Airmen perform the administrative actions that are critical to SAR.
"Many times, our end customers only see what happens at the ground level - the PJs getting off a helicopter, and they are amazing in their own right," Carte said. "But a lot of coordination happens in the background to make that happen."

Getting an emergency call sets off any one of a number of checklists at the AKRCC designed to most efficiently preserve life and limb and beat the "tyranny of time and distance," Carte said.

"When the phone rings, we start taking notes on that and start the process," Carte said. "But the key takeaway is the AKRCC has no tasking authority. We're responsible for coordinating SAR in the Alaska region, yes, but we use whoever will say yes."

The rescue center has many different assets at its disposal to include Civil Air Patrol, the Army National Guard, active-duty Army and Air Force, and the Coast Guard just to name a few, but their primary assets are the three rescue squadrons of the 176th Wing at JBER.
Air National Guard Lt. Col. Karl Westerlund, AKRCC director stressed the importance of all the agencies working in harmony to save lives.

"Whether it's a dedicated military SAR unit, a state organization or a local volunteer team, it takes people from all of the pages of our playbook to successfully execute SAR missions across Alaska and the Arctic," Westerlund said. "Without the assistance of our joint and partner agencies, none of it would be possible."

Carte said the positive relationships within the joint and total force are key to saving lives in Alaska.

"Relationships here matter and amplifies why we have citizen Airmen here in this job," Carte said. "When SAR happens in Alaska, it's a little more critical because of the extremes. Seconds matter and if we have to forge new relationships with the person on the other end of the line every time we make that phone call, it wastes time."

AHEAD OF THE GAME

A veteran of three different Air Force Specialty Codes, one of which was a helicopter flight engineer, Carte's experience allows him to be able to efficiently plan out rescue efforts.
"I have experience being out on the 'cold dark and stormy' as we call it," Carte said. "I know what they're going through out there. I know how to think ahead five or six steps so that the flight crews as my customers get the best service they need. If I know they're going to need gas and the usual place is snowed in, I'm going to find gas in three other locations and have it set up with somebody standing at the pump waiting for them."
From talking to frantic survivors to calling hospitals to arrange care for incoming patients, it's all in a day's work for Carte.

"This job is extremely rewarding," he said. "All of us here, we all do this because it's what we want to do. This isn't a job to us. This is our lives."

Westerlund summed up with the intangible rewards of saving lives.

"The business of SAR is a virtuous calling," Westerlund said. "Being part of a life-saving effort on a daily basis has no higher reward. The controllers of the AKRCC are the critical connection between those in peril, and those who have the capability to prosecute a rescue mission."

HAVE A PLAN

Carte stressed that while he and the crew at the rescue center are willing and eager to help save lives, if you have to call them, something went wrong.

"Having a plan and ensuring you have adequate survival supplies will go far in you helping yourself," Carte stressed.

The AKRCC has emergency locater beacons available to JBER personnel and highly encourages people to stop by and check one out free of charge before setting off on any trip or adventure in the Alaskan wilderness.

Don Erbey discovered the importance of having some sort of emergency locator beacon firsthand.

"When I went down, my radio still worked for a little bit, but I don't know what we would have done without an emergency locator beacon," he said. "Anybody going out should always have a plan and have emergency supplies like that."

For more information on the AKRCC or to request an emergency locator beacon, please call 551-7236.