Military first responders team up with the Clackamas Fire Department for aviation rescue training

During a simulated disaster where rampant floodwaters isolated entire neighborhoods and submerged access roads, two military rescue helicopters skimmed just above the winding Sandy River, their rotors slicing just above the dense tree canopy in Clackamas County, near Sandy, Oregon, on June 5, 2026.

Since late February, the Oregon National Guard, along with other military first responders, has been training with the Clackamas Fire Department in a three-part “crawl, walk, run” series to enhance joint incident response capabilities. The final “run” focused on water rescues in Clackamas County’s biologically diverse terrain and used an Oregon Army National Guard HH-60M Black Hawk out of Salem, and a U.S. Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk assigned to Coast Guard Station Astoria to extract casualties from stranded areas along the fictional “Clackamine River.”

“What we're working on today is interagency coordination between our capabilities with the National Guard, and the water rescue teams on the Coast Guard and civilian sides,” said Army Staff Sgt. Elliot Ariel, assigned to Golf Company, 1st Battalion, 189th Aviation Regiment. “The training is beneficial to the community, and the practice helps streamline our communication process and how we would have to do this in a real-world event.”

Morgan West, Community Resilience Officer for the Clackamas Fire Department, spearheaded the three training exercises. The “crawl” occurred on February 26 during an air-monitoring exercise that resulted in an accident involving a tank of anhydrous ammonia in Clackamas, Oregon. The “walk” session was held on April 10 at the Sandy River Airport and focused on patient-pack training, aircraft-specific mission briefings, and hoist iterations aboard the Black Hawk and Jayhawk helicopters. An Oregon Army National Guard CH-47 Chinook from Pendleton was used for ground familiarization and loading training.

“Those questions of ‘We’re not sure…I don’t know how to do that… what are we capable of...’ – That’s why we're here today,” West said as he opened the April training session, which led up to the final “run” exercise, with the Army and Coast Guard each conducting “one-time goes” to extract injured victims.

A solid plan and open lines of communication set the stage for this final exercise. As with any multi-agency exercise, the real test was weaving everyone together, whether face-to-face, over the radio, on the ground, or soaring above.

“Having the combat controllers here [from the 125th STS] was a critical safety factor,” West said. “They are a great resource because they helped with the sequencing of aircraft into and out of the recovery zone.”

The 125th is one of only two Special Tactics units in the Air National Guard, the other being the 123rd Special Tactics Squadron in Kentucky. This unit comprises Combat Controllers and Special Operations Weather Teams. They also bring extensive experience in static-line and military free-fall parachuting, rappelling, small-boat operations, and all-terrain vehicle operations.

“Separation in the air space is the biggest thing and having a plan in place,” noted one of the 125th Special Tactics airmen conducting air traffic control for this exercise. “But today went super-smooth.”

Noting that air rescue operations are generally fixed for Coast Guard operations along the Pacific Ocean, Coast Guard Lt. j.g. Griffin Garber said the contrast in training was a welcome change.

“It’s a very unique environment, especially for our crews who are used to the ocean, as there is not a lot of tree coverage around there, so it’s great to train and get that experience in this environment.”

U.S. Air Force Reserve Pararescuemen, known as “PJs,” from the 304th Rescue Squadron at the Portland Air National Guard Base, also took part in the training. They supported both the Army Guard and the Coast Guard Flight Medics on the ground, helping to load patients into rescue litter baskets. Although the squadron is based in Portland, it is part of the 943rd Rescue Group at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona and the 920th Rescue Wing at Patrick Space Force Base in Florida. The unit has a long history of search-and-rescue missions in the Pacific Northwest.

On March 7, 2022, 11 members of the unit battled high winds and deep snow to help rescue two injured climbers stranded on Mount Hood, in Central Oregon. As they had before, they joined forces with Oregon Army National Guard aviators to launch a coordinated search-and-rescue operation in the Leuthold Couloir after the two climbers plunged nearly 200 feet. The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office called on its expertise for the demanding ground recovery mission.

The conditions for this final part of the three-step exercise unfolded after days of relentless rain, when the saturated soils of fictional Clackamine County could no longer absorb the rising waters. Streams feeding into the lower Sandyville area quickly overflowed, causing severe flooding along the fictional Clackamine River. Local neighborhoods became isolated and sustained significant damage as the water continued to rise. In response, Clackamas County Emergency Management urgently called on the Oregon Department of Emergency Management for help. This prompted a coordinated rescue effort, with Search and Rescue teams from Clackamas Fire and military units mobilizing to assist those affected by the severe flood.

The final exercise mirrored a specific real-life rescue operation by the Oregon Army National Guard over two decades ago.

On December 13, 2003, the Oregon National Guard Military Air Rescue Team responded to an urgent call from Oregon Emergency Management and conducted an over-water rescue along a similar stretch of the Sandy River.

At 5:30 p.m., an urgent call came in. Two kayakers were stranded, desperately clinging to a sandbar as the storm-swollen river rose beneath them. Braving the darkness and snow, then-Army National Guard Lt. Col. Dan Hokanson led the mission as pilot-in-command, a role that foreshadowed his future as the 29th chief of the National Guard Bureau.

Despite firing a rope across the river, the ground team could not reach the kayakers, whose hands were too numb from the frigid 38-degree water to hold on. With a helicopter grounded by surging currents and massive trees hurtling downstream, a boat rescue became the final hope. After more than three hours in the icy water, the kayakers were on the brink of hypothermia. Thanks to the Oregon Black Hawk crew that day, both kayakers survived and fully recovered, and no rescuers were injured.

“This has been a step-by-step training for all of our teams involved. Many of our members have been deployed outside the region and the Clackamas fire area, so we understand which needs we are missing,” said Kyle Olson, who has coordinated regional disaster readiness exercises for the Clackamas Fire Department. Last August, he worked with the Oregon Army National Guard to begin initial flood response efforts alongside CH-47 crews. “We have so many talented folks in each one of these competencies and with these skill sets who can go out and help when we need it most.”