DoD Support
ARCTIC OCEAN, MARCH 2020 -- Commander, Submarine Forces conducted Ice Exercise 2020 (ICEX). Pathfinder's Bell 212 was there flown by pilot Evan Ruethling. We provided helicopter support to Ice Camp Seadragon and the arrival of two US Navy fast-attack submarines. ICEX is a three-week naval exercise lead by the Navy's Arctic Submarine Laboratory (ASL), based in San Diego. The average temp during the exercise was -27°F with 100 participants from 5 allied nations involved. We were proud to be there!
From Our Pilot
“Mostly passenger transports to and from surfaced submarines. Either we would fly ASL crews out in the morning to meet the submarine or be flying submariners back from subs, to camp, so they could get a break from life underwater. We did 1 medevac for a crushed finger and evacuated someone else for a family emergency. All of these flights are short hops since the subs would surface only 3 or 4 miles from camp and once we got people back to camp they could hop on a plane to take them to Deadhorse (which was a much longer flight).
Our other task was flying ice surveys—taking ice scientists out to assess how the sea ice was behaving. We also helped break down camp at the end and brought multiple snowmachines back to land so a cargo plane could haul them off.”
Watch the videos to learn more about ICEX!