CHESTERFIELD, Va. –
Virginia National Guard and Chesterfield Fire and Emergency Medical Services senior leaders presented the VNG Bronze Star to members of the Virginia Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team for their work performing rescues in 2024 during Hurricane Helene April 22, 2025, in Chesterfield, Virginia.
Brig. Gen. Todd Hubbard, the VNG Director of the Joint Staff, Col. Craig Lewis, the VNG State Aviation Officer and Chief Edward L. Senter Jr., Fire Chief for Chesterfield Fire and EMS, all gave remarks thanking the VNG aviators and Chesterfield rescue technicians for their service supporting emergency operations in Southwest Virginia During Hurricane Helene. During those operations, HART made their first real-world rescue hoist after years of rigorous, realistic training. ui
“I want to say to the firefighters and Soldiers here, thank you for what you did, all the hours you’ve put in, all of the extra effort,” said Hubbard. “Thank you for being the type to put your needs to the side and put the needs of the commonwealth and our citizens to the front.”
Lewis also thanked not just the HART personnel but all of the supporting players behind the scenes who help make HART’s mission possible.
“During my career in sports, I played running back both at the high school and collegiate levels,” said Lewis. “Every single coach I ever had told every back that if you score a touchdown and you thump your chest, you’re wrong. The first thing you should do is go back to your teammates and congratulate them. It takes a team to get us here. I appreciate everyone who got us here.”
While the team has been called on in the past to be on stand-by for emergency response missions, the rescues conducted in the wake of Hurricane Helene were the first real-world rescues the team has performed. HART rescued a total of six survivors, including five via rescue hoist. They also were able to transport ground rescue teams and conducted route and area search and rescue flights.
“While operating in devastated areas of southwest Virginia, the team located victims in multiple different area who were trapped in fast-moving flood waters, and safely performed six rescues,” said Senter. “Performing such high-risk operations safely is a testament to the training and skill of the pilots and flight crews, and the firefighters and rescue technicians assigned to the team.”
“It is an incredible feeling for the HART to be given the opportunity to conduct rescue operations and support the citizens of Virginia,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Mark Hoffman, lead pilot for VAHART. “So many people worked hard over the past 13 years building and training the VAHART and getting the team ready for operations like Hurricane Helene.”
In one instance, a husband and wife were separated when their home near Damascus, Virginia, split in half in the flood waters, with the husband being swept downstream. HART was able to rescue him to safety. The couple, each fearing the other had been lost, were reunited several hours later.
Hubbard said those successful rescues are a product of countless hours of hard, realistic training.
“I want to talk about this team and the training they’ve done,” Hubbard said. “Hundreds of hours and almost more than 10 years in the making to get us to a point where we deployed and actually executing this mission. This is what we do in the military. We do the training, we’re always prepared, we’re always ready and we’re always there. We were there for those citizens who needed us when Helene was raging.”
Ultimately, both the VNG aviators and the Chesterfield rescue specialists are now even better prepared for the next time the team is launched for emergency response operations.
“The most important game we have is the next game, not what happened previously,” said Lewis. “Don’t rest on your laurels because tomorrow, next week, next month and next year people who you are going to be asked to save will not care what happened during Hurricane Helene.”
Virginia HART originally formed as a partnership between VNG aviators and rescue specialists from Chesterfield Fire & EMS in 2011, since then, they have been called on during response operations including Hurricane Harvey in Houston and more recently Hurricane Florence in South Carolina, though they were not needed to conduct any rescues during those operations. The team conducts quarterly training specifically to practice these kinds of rescues, including rescues from cars, building rooftops and aquatic environments, including swift water rescues.
Read more about HART at https://vngpao.info/VaHART.