Fairchild Airmen rescue hiker, son Published Aug. 25, 2011 By Staff Sgt. J.G. Buzanowski 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- Airmen from the 336th Training Group saved a 50-year-old man from a mountaintop near Wenatchee, Wash., Saturday night. Patrick Ward had been hiking with his son, who contacted local authorities when his father began suffering from acute mountain sickness. "When you go up in altitude, your body doesn't always process oxygen the way it's supposed to," explained Tech. Sgt. Joseph Brownell, the independent duty medical technician on scene. "The longer you stay up there, the worse you can get -- your lungs start filling up with fluid, you can get visual disturbances. Basically, if you're on a 9,000-foot mountain, there's no way you can climb down." The crew arrived on scene just after 8 p.m. The flight engineer, Staff Sgt. Dustin Sheffield, lowered Brownell 200 feet by hoist from their UH-1N Iroquois helicopter. Once below, Brownell treated Ward and prepared him to be lifted back to the aircraft. "The best way to treat altitude sickness is to get back down, so they got him down the mountain and came back for the son and then me," Brownell said. After they were all off the mountain, the crew delivered Ward and his son to Pangborne Memorial Airport, where an ambulance took them to a nearby hospital. In addition to Brownell and Sheffield, Capts. Ken Green and Stephen Jones, both from the 36th Rescue Flight, flew the helicopter. This was the 664th save for the rescue flight and the third in the past three weeks.