At 5:30 p.m. on March 22, the Tennessee National Guard and the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency were alerted that there was a stranded hiker in a remote part of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.
The hiker was near the trail at the Ramsey Cascades waterfall within the park, was injured, and required medical evacuation. The Great Smokey Mountains National Park covers half a million acres and receives about 14 million visitors a year.
After receiving the alert, the Tennessee National Guard began to prepare, and the UH-60 Black Hawk flight crew began to prepare the helicopter for flight. At 7:20 p.m., the rescue mission received the necessary authorizations, and the crew departed from Joint Base McGhee-Tyson, flying directly to the hiker’s location…