Recent Look Back: Montana National Guard Rescues 87 People During Floods

Originally published June 16, 2022

You gotta love those Chinook helicopters. When I hear a Chinook helicopter flying nearby, I still run outside to give them a look. When I was on a remote outpost in the mountains of Eastern Afghanistan, the sound of a Chinook helicopter was the sound of mail and care packages coming from back home.

I imagine there's a lot of folks who were camping or stranded by floodwaters in the Red Lodge area the past few days who will never forget the sound of a Chinook helicopter now either.

As of Wednesday (6/15/22) morning, the Montana National Guard reports that since June 13th, "Montana Army National Guard helicopters have rescued 87 people and flown more than 41 hours in support of Search and Rescue operations due to the ongoing flooding in South Central Montana. Both Chinook and Blackhawk helicopters have been used in rescue operations.

As KTVQ-TV's Casey Conlon reports, the National Guard in particular rescued a large group that was stranded near East Rosebud Lake with the Chinooks. One camper described being overwhelmed upon being rescued:

"They were planning on us being there 2-4 weeks," said camper Nicole O'Shea of Billings.

According to a news release from the Montana Army National Guard, "Starting at 2:45 p.m. on Monday, the Montana National Guard began receiving requests to rescue stranded civilians using our military aircraft with hoist capability."

Since that time, search and rescue operations have taken place in Roscoe, Cooke City, and near East Rosebud Lake.

Here's more photos:

By the way, this is what these men and women train for. Check out the photo below, which the Montana Guard tells us is an example of hoist rescue training that took place at Canyon Ferry Lake on August 8th of 2021.

Click here to follow the Montana Guard on Facebook.