DATE: Thursday, September 25, 1997          TAG: 9709240460

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Military 

SOURCE: By Lt. CHUCK STOFFA 

                                            LENGTH:   73 lines

HELICOPTER RESCUE ADDS NEW ELEMENT TO TRAINING

Dark sky, dark sea.

The ``Hellhounds'' were flying night duty, a routine training mission for the SeaHawk helicopter. Their floating base, the Norfolk-based frigate Samuel B. Roberts, was steaming the Atlantic off Puerto Rico.

Then the call for help came.

Ukrainian sailor, trouble breathing. Aboard the tanker Formosa Trident. Northeast of Puerto Rico. 200 miles offshore. Please assist.

The helicopter, Proud Warrior 436, returned to the frigate for a fresh aircrew and more fuel. Shortly before midnight, it lifted off the deck and flew into the night.

The mariner was suffering an acute asthma attack, and could barely breathe. The Coast Guard station in San Juan had called the destroyer Barry. The Barry relayed the call to the Samuel B. Roberts, which already had a bird in the air.

The pilots, myself and Lt. Roger Hartman of Naples, Fla., located the tanker an hour later. The radio communications were unclear and, to further complicate matters, English was not the primary language of the Maltese-flagged tanker crew.

We gave the ship a good look and reached a grim conclusion. The landing pad was too small for the helicopter, and deck obstacles were fouling the landing zone. The only option was to lower an airman, via rescue hoist, to the deck.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Todd McLaughlin was tapped for the job. He tried to keep his mind off the dark, the rise and fall of the waves under the tanker, and the narrow lifeline that tied him to the SeaHawk.

``As I was going down the hoist, I just kept going over and over in my head what I needed to do when I got down there,'' McLaughlin said later. ``I don't really remember how long it took or if what was happening was really dangerous. I just tried to focus on what I needed to do.''

The descent, to me, seemed as though it would never end. As McLaughlin dangled between air and sea, my biggest concern was the possibility of him getting hurt or us not being able to recover him. Waiting to hear from him on the radio felt like forever.

At the end of the line, McLaughlin determined that the patient was too weak to be hoisted aboard the helicopter in the usual manner. Hovering overhead, the helicopter lowered a stretcher to the deck.

But the patient - barely breathing, barely conscious - couldn't walk. McLaughlin and a tanker crewman carried the patient up a ladder and strapped him in. First the stretcher, then McLaughlin, were lifted away and hoisted back into the SeaHawk.

Waiting to give first aid was Petty Officer 1st Class Harold Lester of Emory, Va., the senior aircrewman. His first look at the patient was not reassuring.

``He was barely conscious or breathing and had a very weak pulse,'' Lester said. ``We kept talking to him, but he wouldn't respond. I didn't think he would make it.''

Back on the Samuel B. Roberts, Petty Officer Chad Smith of Shady Spring, W.Va., shared the pessimism. This guy, thought the medical corpsman, is in serious trouble. But an intravenous line, some oxygen and medications stabilized him. The helicopter refueled and took off again, bound for Roosevelt Roads Naval Air Station, 120 miles away.

The Barry positioned itself along the flight path, in case an emergency landing was needed. But the flight went well, and the ill man was transferred to a waiting ambulance at 3:40 a.m. At last check, he was in stable condition.

Search and rescue is not the primary function of the SeaHawk. Thus, the nighttime rescue mission took on added meaning.

``It was very rewarding to use the tremendous assets of this ship and its air department to save a life in danger,'' said Cmdr. Christopher Wode, commanding officer of the Samuel B. Roberts. ``I am extremely proud of everyone involved.'' MEMO: Lt. Chuck Stoffa, the commander of the rescue helicopter, is from

White Haven, Pa. KEYWORDS: RESCUE AT SEA

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