Oregon National Guard uses new hoist technology in mountain rescue

SALEM, Ore. - A new self-stabilizing hoist device helped an Oregon Army National Guard aircrew rescue an injured hunter from the Mount Jefferson Wilderness Sept. 12, marking one of the first live operational uses of the technology in the country.

A pair of hunters were roughly 10 miles from the nearest road when one slipped and broke an ankle. With few options to signal for help, the hunters improvised, tying orange-and-white clothing to a pole and spinning it to catch the attention of the aircrew overhead.

"They had fashioned a signaling device with orange and white, I don't know if it was articles of clothing, but put that on a pole and spun it, which created a signaling device that allowed us to locate them," said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Noelan Smith.

Smith, Staff Sgt. Michael Lam and three other crew members were finishing another flight in an HH-60M Black Hawk helicopter assigned to Golf Company, 1st Battalion, 189th Aviation Regiment, when they were redirected to the scene. The Oregon Department of Emergency Management requested the Guard's assistance after the hunters used a satellite communication device to call for rescue.

Instead of using the traditional method of hoisting a litter, in which a medic on the ground steadies the basket with a tagline as it is lowered and raised, the crew relied on the new device during the real-world rescue. The system, which the crew calls the Vita, attaches to the rescue basket and uses fans to counteract wind and other forces that can cause the basket to spin during a hoist.

"Under normal circumstances, there'd be a medic on the ground using what we call a tagline, a rope attached to the basket, which lets it so it doesn't spin. But with this Vita that we attach to our rescue basket, we don't have to have a tagline anymore and it just stabilizes it up the whole time," said Lam, who operated the device during the rescue while Smith flew the aircraft.

The Oregon National Guard began testing the technology in June 2025, when a team of Guard flight medics worked with Army researchers in Salem to help shape the design of a next-generation medevac aircraft. Oregon was selected for the testing in part because of its steep, forested and often snow-covered terrain, which regularly challenges rescue crews and the capabilities of current aircraft and equipment.

The litter attachment uses an electric propulsion system to counteract spin, bringing a rotating basket under control within seconds. A thrust-vectoring system reads its orientation multiple times per second to hold or adjust the basket's heading, even in heavy rotor wash. A wireless handheld controller lets a crew member direct the litter's rotation and switch it between standby and active modes without a ground crew or tagline to steady it.

The Sept. 12 rescue put that research into practice. Smith said the device's ability to keep a litter steady without a ground medic could allow aircrews to conduct rescues in terrain that was previously difficult or inaccessible.

"If it's cliffside, things like that, we don't necessarily have the ability to have somebody on the ground and move the aircraft in a manner that we'd be able to use a traditional basket with tagline. So this provides us a resource that can get into those spaces that we wouldn't be able to in the past," Smith said.

The injured hunter was flown to a hospital and received treatment within a few hours of the rescue. Guard officials said the mission was among the technology's first operational successes and that the system could eventually be fielded beyond Oregon.

Oregon National Guard aviators conduct several search-and-rescue and medevac missions each year, supporting county sheriff's offices and the Oregon Department of Emergency Management across the state's mountains, deserts and coastline.