◆ Insights

Interagency Crewing: Different Uniforms, One Standard

November 4, 2026

Near Pagosa Springs last month, an RV lay on its side in the Rio Blanco, pinned by brush, with two people and five pets inside. They’d been stranded for about 12 hours. Two channels of fast-moving water kept ground teams from reaching them.

The helicopter crew that went in did not share a uniform. A Colorado Army National Guard pilot flew with a U.S. Coast Guard co-pilot. In the back, two crew chiefs, one from the Colorado Guard and one from the U.S. Air Force, ran the cabin and the hoist. Volunteer rescue technicians from Mountain Rescue Aspen and Vail Mountain Rescue Group rode the cable down. Everyone came up uninjured.

It was one of many missions; Colorado Army National Guard aviation crews have helped rescue or extract at least 50 people and 20 pets across the flood zone, flying hoist-equipped UH-60 Black Hawks and UH-72 Lakotas.

That kind of crew mix doesn’t just happen. The crew came from the High-Altitude Army National Guard Aviation Training Site (HAATS) in Gypsum, which has run as a joint schoolhouse with a full-time Coast Guard instructor pilot since 2010. HAATS provides what it calls “graduate level” mountain flying training to hundreds of military aircrews a year.

In addition to the Colorado Guard and Coast Guard pilots up front, look at the back of the aircraft: two crew chiefs from two services, civilian volunteers on the hook, all with one standardized procedure. That works only when teams have been trained to the same standard long before the cabin door slides open. When a disaster pulls Army, Coast Guard, Air Force, and volunteer rescuers into the same cabin, a shared standard is what ensures the crew can safely effect the rescue.

Further reading:

https://kdvr.com/news/local/helicopter-rescue-saves-2-people-5-pets-trapped-in-rv-by-floodwaters/

https://www.koaa.com/news/local-news/colorado-national-guard-has-helped-rescue-50-people-and-20-pets-amid-flooding

https://co.ng.mil/Army/Schoolhouse-HAATS/HAATS-Facts/

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