of flight in the extreme turbulence. In the right seat, Fleming was struggling to don his NVG. “Can’t you hold this thing steady?” As they flew, Baur recalls that his ground speed and the
chance of reaching Halifax, Sable Island, or an offshore rig had now evaporated. Tey’d need another refuel. “I flew for another hour in that weather, conditions in which it was impossible to conduct a rendezvous and mid-air refueling.”
experience was surreal.” He flew for another hour on goggles, peering beneath the
cutaways to the instruments. It required all of his mental acuity to keep the aircraft upright, and that became his only goal. “I didn’t touch the cyclic, and I was careful with the collective input. I didn’t want to overly stress the aircraft or encounter negative-G’s. I was just gonna ride this thing out like a cork. We continued ahead, determined to see who would win: us or the North Atlantic. Te Marines radioed an hour later: “Hey, we’re between
layers at 6,000 ft.” Alright, this is where we bet the farm, thought Baur.
Performing a refueling rendezvous at night is challenging. Tey had to climb into the icing, find clear air to shed ice from the rotors, and find the tankers. A lack of moonlight reduced the goggles’ capability, but they desperately needed the fuel. Leaving the marginal safety of the salt-laden air near the
water, both helicopters punched into the belly of the storm, shrouded in ice and punished by turbulence. Tey climbed toward the break between the cloud layers, hoping to shed the ice and locate the tankers. “Ultimately, we were able to rendezvous and refuel. And
it was at that point we realized we were almost home free. Nothing was going to stand in our way of accomplishing the mission and delivering the survivor to safety.”
Above: US Air Force Capt. Chris Baur, age 33.
Opposite: Taranov’s heartfelt letter of
thanks to the two HH-60 crews.
When Taranov wasn’t busy dry heaving, the turbulence
was bouncing him hard between the deck and the overhead of the cabin. Tis poor guy survived a shipwreck, and now I’m gonna pulverize him in the back of the helicopter, thought Baur. At some point, Davin took a cargo strap and lashed Taranov to the deck. Baur would later find the back of his helmet covered with dozens of dents, the result of repeatedly slamming into the circuit-breaker panel directly behind his head. Baur asked the KC-130s to scout another rendezvous area.
Tey radioed back: “Hey, we just broke out. We’re at 25,000 ft.” To meet for refueling, both HH-60s and the tanker needed to find one another, homing in on radio transmissions and visually acquiring one another using NVG. “Two more things we’d been ordered not to do,” says Baur, remembering the brief. “Don’t refuel at night, and don’t wear NVG to refuel.” “We can’t climb to 25,000,” Baur responded, fighting the
storm for directional control. While his adrenaline was fading, his body continued operating on muscle memory. He recalls a number of thoughts: How much pounding can this aircraft take? At what point will the rotor blades just come off? “Te
36 ROTOR MARCH 2021
Home Free Eventually, they left the storm. Baur remembers flipping his goggles up so he could see the lights of Halifax. “My eyes were watery, not because I was crying but because they just burned so bad.” When the lights became more prominent, Davin brought Taranov forward to show him. “Te emotion of it was incredible,” says Baur. “We felt like astronauts returning from space.” As they approached, Taranov spoke. “America?” “No,” corrected Davin. “Canada.” Taranov seemed perplexed. “But you’re American? Why
would Americans come all the way to middle of ocean to rescue me and take me to Canada?” Finally, Baur landed. It had been over 16 hours since they
took off from Halifax. “I felt like we had endured pure hell and fury but we’d accomplished the mission: that others may live. We pulled together and worked as a team to achieve the impossible, never losing focus, while successfully iden- tifying and defeating the obstacles and challenges we encountered.” Once the medical team had taken Taranov away for medical
care, the crews had run their checklists and shut the aircraft down, Baur realized he had two new problems. One, he hadn’t been able to relieve himself for 16 hours. And two,
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