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Arkansas Guard sends medevac helicopter, troops to help Florida hurricane rescue efforts

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Arkansas Guard sends medevac helicopter, troops to help Florida hurricane rescue efforts

Oct 09, 2024 | 1:05 pm ET
By Sonny Albarado
Arkansas Guard sends medevac helicopter to help Florida hurricane rescue efforts
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An Arkansas National Guard crew prepares their Black Hawk helicopter before leaving for Florida to aid hurricane relief efforts. (Screenshot from video by 1st Sgt. Jim Heuston)

This story was updated at 3:05 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2024.

The Arkansas National Guard sent a medevac helicopter to Florida on Tuesday and will send more than 100 troops to that state in response to anticipated damage from Hurricane Milton.

The guard members began reporting to Camp Joseph T. Robinson on Wednesday for personnel processing, equipment pickup and vehicle inspections and will leave Thursday, according to a press release. Their 17-day mission includes travel time to and from Florida. They’re expected to provide security, traffic control, and commodities distribution while in Florida, but Florida National Guard officials could redirect them to tackle other needs as they arise.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders approved the mission.

“The citizens of Florida need assistance after Hurricane Helene and now Milton, and Arkansas Guard members are eager and willing to help,” said Brig. Gen Chad Bridges, Arkansas adjutant general.

A five-member Black Hawk helicopter crew from the Arkansas National Guard flew to Florida on Tuesday to help provide airlift support after Hurricane Milton makes landfall.

The National Weather Service classified the storm as a strong Category 4 Wednesday morning as it neared landfall near Tampa.

This will be the second storm in recent weeks for which the Arkansas Guard provided assistance. Arkansas military units sent more than 25,300 Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) to Georgia in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene to help feed storm-affected civilians.

Bridges said the Black Hawk, model HH-60M, is the guard’s newest model and the Florida mission is its first active-duty state mission.

“It’s also the first time we’re going to operate outside the state with the Arkansas Urban Search and Rescue Task Force-1 team from central Arkansas, who is sending four personnel. Our crews have trained rigorously with their civilian counterparts, and they’re well prepared to take on this vital mission once the hurricane has passed.”

The five-soldier helicopter crew includes two pilots, two crew chiefs and a medic. They were expected to stage overnight in the Florida panhandle before proceeding where directed by the Florida National Guard in the wake of Hurricane Milton, the press release said.

An Army fact sheet describes the HH-60M as a modernized version of the “legacy Black Hawk helicopter” designed to operate 24 hours a day in all weather conditions. The newer Black Hawk “features a new airframe, advanced digital avionics and a powerful propulsion system that can be used to perform tactical transport, utility, search and rescue, airborne assault, command and control, medical evacuation, aerial sustainment, disaster relief and firefighting missions,” the fact sheet says.