VX-31 SAR crew rescues lost boy near Chimney Peak

The Navy search and rescue (SAR) team assigned to NAWCWD China Lake delivered a late Christmas present to Ruben and Crystal Arroyo on Dec. 28 as the crew saved their teenage son lost in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains after he spent the night alone in sub-freezing temperatures.

"I thought I was going to die," Matthew Ybarra told Eyewitness News staff at Bakersfieldnow.com.

Matthew had been sledding on Sunday and got separated from his family when he went looking for more altitude and faster speeds in the Chimney Peak area of Nine Mile Canyon.

“I found a bigger slope, but I couldn't find my way back,” he said.

Matthew spent about 16 hours alone that night in temperatures that dropped to 19 degrees Fahrenheit. While trying to find his way out of the wilderness, he had fallen in a creek and lost his shoes, a sock and a glove.

The Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 31 (VX-31) SAR crew was called at 7:30 Monday morning to help with the search. The team of Lt. Cmdr. Ken Gilbert, Lt. Neal Barham, AWSC John Jennings, AWS1 David Finn and HM2 Ben Hernandez was airborne by 8:10 and on the scene at 8:30.

Gilbert and Barham landed the SH-60F Seahawk helicopter across the road from the Chimney Peak fire station and the crew was quickly briefed on the situation by the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office. They coordinated with members of the China Lake Mountain Rescue Group, and Tulare County SAR before beginning the aerial search.

Soon after launching, rescue helicopter “COSO 460” was notified that ground searchers had located Matthew on the side of a hill. Landing the helicopter anywhere within a half-mile of the boy was not an option as the terrain was steep with tall trees, and very rocky.

“This is just the sort of thing that we are made for,” said Barham, who had been on a training mission in the same area about a week earlier. “Luckily, this one was text-book.”

Hernandez rappelled about 100 feet from the Seahawk and found Matthew alert and cradled in the arms of a ground searcher.

“He was sitting up and was in good spirits,” said Hernandez, who performed a medical assessment and found the boy to be hypothermic with no other external injuries besides bloodied and frostbitten feet.

Within 15 minutes, Hernandez and Matthew were hoisted up to the helicopter, where the crew continued to track his vital signs. Lt. Mercedes Patee, the squadron’s flight surgeon, monitored the mission via radio from the VX-31 duty office. With Ybarra’s 88-degree body temperature, Patee decided it was best for Matthew to go to Loma Linda. The crew got him to the hospital in less than an hour.

“Our SAR crew pulled off another flawless recovery and saved a young life,” said Capt. Eric Holmberg, VX-31 commanding officer. “My hat is off to them.”

This was the twelfth rescue mission in 2009 for the VX-31 SAR team.

“It’s a pretty good feeling to find a survivor and get him out,” Gilbert said. “This was fairly routine for us; it’s what we train for everyday.”

Source: NAVAIR