On Wednesday afternoon, April 1, a flight crew with the Tennessee Army National Guard’s 1-230th Assault Helicopter Battalion rescued a park visitor suffering from cardiac arrest in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
Shortly after 2:40 p.m., Eastern time, the Tennessee National Guard and the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency were notified of a park visitor having a medical emergency in need of immediate assistance and rapid transport to a nearby hospital. The visitor was located near Dillons Gap along Kuwohi Road, which parallels the Appalachian Trail, in a remote area of the park southeast of Gatlinburg, along the North Carolina border.
Once TEMA was notified of the possible mission, Tennessee National Guardsmen assigned to Task Force Smokey assembled a flight crew and readied a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter for flight. As soon as the mission was approved, the aircraft departed Joint Base McGhee-Tyson at approximately 3:10 p.m., flying directly to the rescue site…