FollowYourOwnPath

On the night of September 5, 2020, two hundred and forty-two campers, children, and dogs were trapped at the edge of Mammoth Pool Reservoir in California as a wall of wildfire flames roared down the mountain from every side. The only road out was burning. The air was so choked with pitch-black smoke and flying embers that every civilian rescue helicopter was forced out of the sky. Trapped families waded chest-deep into the dark reservoir water and began texting their final goodbyes to their loved ones. Then a deep, heavy thumping sound shook the burning pine trees. Why could a California National Guard CH-47F Chinook and a UH-60M Black Hawk fly into a firestorm where no civilian aircraft could survive? Because Chief Warrant Officer 5 Joseph Rosamond and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jeremy Goding were combat-tested military aviators flying on night-vision goggles and cockpit instruments through zero-visibility smoke that smelled like a furnace inside the cabin. Guided only by the red glow of the flames and their radar altimeters over the water, the giant twin-rotor Chinook, callsign Brady 52, set its rear ramp down on the concrete boat launch while trees exploded into fireballs yards away. A Chinook is normally configured to carry thirty troops. That night, the crew tore out the rules and packed one hundred and two terrified men, women, children, and dogs sitting shoulder to shoulder on the metal floor in a single lift. Instead of staying safe after making it out, those National Guard crews turned their helicopters around and flew back into the blinding smoke two more times until all 242 people were rescued alive in seven hours. When the sky turns to fire and the instruments go dark, thank God for the men who fly toward the flames.