Wyoming Guard Partners with Wyoming Hoist Team for Search and Rescue Training

Why It Matters

By standardizing air‑ground coordination, the partnership cuts rescue time, saves lives, and reduces manpower costs in Wyoming’s remote, mountainous regions.

Key Takeaways

• Joint drills boost air‑ground rescue efficiency.
• Hoist training saved lives in 2025 crash.
• Wyoming’s terrain demands helicopter hoist capabilities.
• Training reduces hundreds of man‑hours per mission.
• Consistent crew familiarity prevents operational delays.

Pulse Analysis

Wyoming’s expansive, mountainous landscape leaves many communities isolated from road networks, making aviation the only viable lifeline during emergencies. The state’s National Guard operates UH‑60 Black Hawk helicopters equipped for high‑altitude hoist operations, but the true value emerges when civilian rescue teams understand the aircraft’s capabilities and constraints. Joint training sessions, like the recent Greybull Mountains exercise, bridge that gap, ensuring that volunteers can safely navigate rotor wash, communicate with pilots, and secure patients in confined, treacherous spots.

The practical payoff of this collaboration became evident during the September 2025 crash in the Sheridan mountains. Ground rescuers, already versed in hoist procedures, coordinated seamlessly with Guard crew members who had previously instructed them. This familiarity allowed medics to stabilize patients on site, while hoist operators positioned the cable with precision, extracting the most critical patient within two hours—a timeline that likely saved a life. Over the past five years, the region’s SAR teams have completed roughly 14‑15 hoist rescues, each saving hundreds of man‑hours compared to traditional ground‑only approaches.

Beyond Wyoming, the model illustrates how interagency training can elevate emergency response standards nationwide. Consistent, scenario‑based drills reduce operational friction, improve safety margins, and justify continued investment in specialized aviation assets. As climate change intensifies weather volatility and remote incidents rise, states with similar terrain can replicate this partnership to enhance resilience, protect lives, and optimize resource allocation.

Wyoming Guard Partners with Wyoming Hoist Team for Search and Rescue Training

By Staff Sgt. Leanna Russell · February 10, 2026

Image Captions (selected)

• Members from the Big Horn County Search and Rescue Team are raised toward a UH‑60 Black Hawk helicopter during hoist training in the Greybull Mountains of Wyoming, 2026.

• Rescue team member Sam Miller climbs into a UH‑60 Black Hawk helicopter during hoist training in the Greybull Mountains of Wyoming, Jan. 28, 2026.

• Wyoming Army National Guard crew chief Master Sgt. Nevada Popp assists rescue personnel, Wyatt Schatz and Sam Miller as they prepare to be hoisted into a UH‑60 Black Hawk helicopter during joint training in Wyoming, Jan. 28, 2026.

• Big Horn County Search and Rescue Team member Elise Lowe positions near the open door of a UH‑60 Black Hawk helicopter as aircrew members conduct hoist training over mountainous terrain in Wyoming, Jan. 28, 2026.

• Wyoming Army National Guard crew member looks down from a UH‑60 Black Hawk helicopter as rescue personnel are hoisted during joint training in the Greybull Mountains of Wyoming, Jan. 28, 2026.

• A Wyoming Army National Guard UH‑60 Black Hawk helicopter sits on the flight line as aircrew and rescue personnel prepare for hoist training with Big Horn County Search and Rescue and Wyoming Life Flight, Jan. 28, 2026.

• Wyoming Army National Guard crew chief and flight instructor Master Sgt. Nevada Popp briefs Wyoming Life Flight responder Sam Miller inside a UH‑60 Black Hawk helicopter during hoist training, Jan. 28, 2026.

• Rescue personnel from the Big Horn County Search and Rescue Team are lowered by hoist from a Wyoming Army National Guard UH‑60 Black Hawk helicopter during joint hoist training in the Greybull Mountains, Jan. 28, 2026.

• Wyoming Army National Guard Chief Master Sgt. Nevada Popp looks down toward rescue personnel on the ground while conducting hoist training from a UH‑60 Black Hawk helicopter, Jan. 28, 2026.

• A Wyoming Army National Guard UH‑60 Black Hawk helicopter conducts hoist training with rescue personnel suspended below the aircraft, Jan. 28, 2026.

• Wyoming Army National Guard pilot Chief Warrant Officer 4 Brian Coleman monitors flight conditions from the cockpit of a UH‑60 Black Hawk helicopter during hoist training, Jan. 28, 2026.

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Article

GREYBULL, Wyo. – High above the snow‑covered slopes of the Greybull Mountains, a Wyoming Army National Guard UH‑60 Black Hawk hovers as personnel from the Wyoming Hoist Team are lowered onto the rugged terrain below.

The hoist training, conducted Jan. 28 by the Wyoming National Guard, equips civilian search‑and‑rescue teams with the skills needed to work safely and efficiently with military aviation crews in Wyoming’s most inaccessible environments. The Wyoming Hoist Team is made up of volunteers from multiple counties across Wyoming, including Park, Sheridan and Bighorn counties. For them, it is not hypothetical training – it is based on missions they have already faced.

In the Sheridan mountains, on Sept. 1, 2025, a small aircraft crashed deep in mountainous terrain. Multiple patients were injured, miles from the nearest road, in a drainage where landing a helicopter was impossible. Ground teams hiked more than 7 miles to reach the site, only to find patients deteriorating rapidly.

Andy Earp, a member of the Sheridan‑area search‑and‑rescue team and the Wyoming Hoist Team, recounted the incident.

“One hundred percent, this training saved lives,” he said. “Without it, I don’t believe that rescue would have gone as smoothly as it did, and I truly don’t think our most critical patient would have survived.”

“They went from yellow to red while we were on scene,” Earp added. “We weren’t going to be able to walk them out. There were no roads, no easy options.”

As search and rescue teams requested aviation support, relief came when they learned the Wyoming National Guard helicopter crew was on standby in Pinedale, Wyoming. When the aircraft arrived on scene, the familiarity between the crews was apparent immediately.

“The medic, Staff Sgt. Ashley Ott, came down, looked at the wreckage, and then looked at us and said, ‘I know you guys,’” Earp said. “That’s when we knew this was going to go smoother.”

Unbeknownst to them at the time, the crew was the same Army Guard personnel who had trained the rescue teams years earlier. The pilot in command, hoist operator and flight medic had all served as instructors during previous hoist courses.

“It all fell into place,” Earp said. “We didn’t have to question what anyone was doing. Everyone knew what to expect.”

That shared understanding – how to manage rotor wash, stabilize patients and communicate with hand signals and verbal cues – is exactly what the hoist training is designed to build.

“This kind of training allows us to pick patients up where they are, instead of moving them to a landing zone,” said Jeff Schmidt, search‑and‑rescue captain for Big Horn County Search and Rescue. “In the Bighorns, most of our missions are miles from a trailhead, often above treeline. Hoist capability saves hundreds of man‑hours and, more importantly, time for the patient.”

Schmidt said his team has conducted about 14 to 15 patient hoists in the past five years.

Wyoming’s geography makes this type of partnership essential, Schmidt said. With vast distances, extreme elevation changes and unpredictable weather, aviation is often the only viable rescue option.

“Wyoming presents a unique challenge,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 John Paul Matthews, a Wyoming Army National Guard standardization instructor. “High altitude, freezing temperatures, strong winds – this training keeps us sharp and helps us understand our limits before we’re called out on someone’s worst day.”

From the cockpit, pilots train not only in flying skills but also in crew coordination and power management in mountainous environments. In the cabin, hoist operators and medics refine the precision required to lower personnel into confined spaces that are sometimes no larger than a break in the trees or, as in Sheridan, the wreckage of an aircraft itself.

“The ground teams already had patients stabilized when we arrived,” Matthews said. “That level of coordination doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because we train together.”

Sgt. 1st Class Andrew McCown, a hoist operator, said the success of the Sheridan mission hinged on that shared training.

“Two of the rescuers on the ground had gone through our hoist familiarization,” McCown said. “They anticipated rotor wash, secured loose debris, helped manage slack and assisted the medic as she came down. That teamwork made the rescue faster and safer for everyone.”

In the end, the most critical patient was extracted within two hours of rescuers reaching the crash site – a timeline Earp believes made the difference.

“As residents of Wyoming, we’re self‑sufficient people,” he said. “But when things go wrong in this terrain, you need partnerships like this. Training together is what turns chaos into coordination.”

As the Black Hawk lifts away from the Greybull Mountains and the hoist cable retracts, the training concludes. But for the Wyoming Hoist Team and aviators involved, the purpose remains clear: ensuring that when the next call comes, everyone involved already knows how to save lives together.