HUMANITARIAN SERVICE For outstanding service in using helicopters to provide aid to those in need California Army National Guard


40th CAB CH-47 & UH-60 Helicopter Crews Fresno, California, USA


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On the evening of Sep. 5, 2020, the rapidly growing Creek Fire in the Sierra Nevada Forest northeast of Fresno, California, had surrounded a large group of campers, hikers, and residents. Without assets to reach the stranded, the Madera County Sheriff’s Office called the California Army National Guard 40th Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB) for help. Te most deployed unit of Cal Guard, the 40th CAB also provides considerable support to Cal Fire (a department of the California Natural Resources Agency) during the state’s fire seasons, employing its CH-47 Chinook and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters for transport and water drops. Chief Warrant Officer 5 (CW5) Kipp Goding was at home when he got the call for help from his brigade commander. Goding, a Black Hawk pilot-in-command (PIC) based out of Fresno, quickly put together a crew that included pilot Chief Warrant Officer 2 (CW2) Irvin Hernandez and crew chief Warrant Officer 1 (WO1) Ge Xiong. Meanwhile, the brigade commander reached Chinook PIC CW5 Joseph Rosamond, who pulled together his Stockton, California–based crew: pilot CW2 Brady Hlebain, flight engineer Sgt. George Esquivel, and flight engineer Sgt. Cameron Powell. What followed was a harrowing night that tested the limits


UH-60 Black Hawk crew (from left): WO1 Ge Xiong, CW2 Irvin Hernandez, and CW5 Kipp Goding.


CH-47 Chinook crew (from left): CW2 Brady Hlebain, Sgt. Cameron Powell, Sgt. George Esquivel, and CW5 Joseph Rosamond.


of crews and aircraft alike. An inferno fueled by bone-dry vegetation, bark beetle–killed trees, and strong winds, the Creek Fire was unpredictable, creating so much smoke that the pilots couldn’t see to fly through it. After navigating Cal Fire airspace closed due to active tanker


drops, the helicopters were forced to wait an hour until sunset, when night-vision goggles enabled them to see through the


smoke. Rosamond’s Chinook arrived first and landed on a concrete boat ramp at the reservoir’s edge. Te two helicopters each flew three flights, rescuing a total of 242 people and a significant number of pets from the blaze. “It was really brutal,” Goding says. “We’d return to Fresno, refuel, and head back. In that time, the fire was in a new


position. During the day, the wind made it jump over vegetation, leaving green spots. After sunset, the wind died down a bit, and the fire started burning those previously unburned areas. As a result, we were forced to find a new route to the reservoir each time we returned. No two trips were the same route.” Te crews pushed the limits of the aircraft in the high altitude and fire-fueled temperatures. Each helicopter reached


maximum weight during the night, yet mechanics back at Fresno inspected the aircraft and were able to give the green light to continue. “In many ways, this was much worse than flying in combat,” Goding recalls. “In combat,


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you don’t see people shooting at you. You focus on the job. In the Creek Fire, you saw the wall of smoke and flames. You were flying into it and seeing the terror on people’s faces. We did the job, just as any of our Guard members would. I really want to emphasize that. We may be the ones who did this job, but we’re all doing these jobs every day.”


46 ROTOR MARCH 2021


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