When you add up clear skies, warm weather and mountain hikers, Murphy’s Law says something is bound to happen and it did the weekend of July 31 – twice.
NAS Whidbey Island’s Search and Rescue crew was called for two late night rescues involving a 15-year-old female climber Aug. 1 on Mount Baker and a 32-year old male who fell while hiking Liberty Mountain near Darrington, Wash.

On Saturday night, the Whatcom County Sheriff’s dispatcher in Bellingham called at 11 p.m. requesting help for a teenager who had trouble breathing and was falling in and out of consciousness. The crew of Cmdr. Werner Rauchenstein, pilot; Lt. Brandon Sheets, co-pilot; Naval Aircrewmen Helicopter 1st Class Chad Lewis, crew chief; Naval Aircrewman Helicopter 2nd Class Salomon Padilla, second crew; and Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Andrew Peterson launched at 11:52 p.m., flying to the 6,100 foot level of Mount Baker at the southeast glacier.

“There was no where to land, so I was hoisted down to her where I put her in a hoisting vest and up we went,” said Peterson. “She was practicing ice axe arrestment and fell on it (axe), causing blunt force trauma to her chest.”
The young woman was flown to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bellingham and the crew returned to the base at 2:32 a.m. This was Peterson’s first rescue since reporting to the air station in May 2007.

“I was deployed to Naval Air Ambulance in Kuwait shortly after getting here,” explained Peterson.  He returned in October 2008 and requalified with SAR in February 2009.
The second call for SAR help came from Snohomish County Sherriff’s on Sunday at 8:10 p.m.,
“I was reading my daughter a book when the pager went off, said Peterson. “My 5-year-old daughter said, ‘Daddy’s got another flight!’”

The same duty crew lifted off at 8:33 p.m. heading toward Green Giant Butress, Liberty Mountain where a man had fallen 100 feet and had possible fractures.
At the 2,100 foot level, Peterson and Padilla placed the injured man in a medical evacuation litter. They did not want to leave the man’s hiking partner behind, so he, too, was put in a hoist vest and lifted into the aircraft. The third hiker in their group was safe since he had gone to get help.

The injured man was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and SAR returned to NAS Whidbey Island by 11:22 p.m.
“I’m glad I finally had a chance to do what we train for,” said Peterson, commenting that with two rescues in one weekend the old saying, “When it rains, its pours!” really is true.