"Our pilots and aircrew are among the best in the world," said Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Kidrick, Army Aviation Support Facility Commander. "Being in the National Guard means being a part of our Alaskan community and we will fly anywhere in the state and do what it takes to help people during this weather crisis."

On the first day of the storm, Army Guard aviators flew a Sleetmute child suffering from convulsions to the Bethel hospital for treatment. The very next day a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter from Nome attempted to fly through a blizzard to St. Marys to bring out a wounded man.

While all this was happening, the crew in Anchorage ferried out 10 people and one canine trapped in between avalanches on the Seward Highway south of Girdwood.

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The Alaska Army Guard’s Aviation Battalion is about more than performing headline-grabbing rescues. They’ve also been the workhorses of Southcentral’s avalanche disaster. At the height of the storm, they managed to fly an emergency medical shipment to the nearby cut-off community of Girdwood, as well as hauling fuel and generators to the village of Hope where they hadn’t had electricity in over a week.

Roaring snowslides had also knocked out the State Trooper repeater site at Portage. The Army Guard flew in and picked up repairmen to fix the equipment. In addition, they provided reconnaissance flights over the mountains and through inclement weather checking out dangerous slide areas.

All in all, the citizen soldiers of the Alaska Army National Guard’s Aviation Battalion have earned their wings on all fronts during the Avalanche 2000 crisis.