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The Pilot Project Podcast is an aviation podcast that aims to help new pilots learn what it takes to succeed in the world of flight, to help people in the flight training system learn what they may want to fly, and to give Canadians and the world a peek into life on the flight deck in the RCAF. We want to help pilots succeed and thrive! We interview real RCAF pilots for their exciting stories as well as the lessons they've learned along the way. We'll learn their tips to develop resilience and the tools it takes to make it in flight training.
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Bryan:Alright. We're ready for departure here at The Pilot Project Podcast, the best source for stories and advice from RCAF and Mission Aviation Pilots brought to you by Sky's Magazine. I'm your host, Brian Morrison. And here with me today for our series on the MSC Baltic three Rescue is special guest major Pete Wright, former commanding officer of one zero three SAR Squadron in Gander, Newfoundland, and warrant officer Greg Hudson, former SAR Tech lead of one zero three SAR Squadron. Today, will be talking about what led them both to join the RCAF, some of their training, and the path that led them to take part in the Epic MSC Baltic three Rescue in February 2025.
Bryan:Pete, Greg, thank you so much for taking the time to be here today and welcome to the show.
Pete:Thanks for having me.
Greg:Thank you.
Bryan:We'll start by talking to Pete, but before that, let's go through Pete's bio. Major Pete Wright was born in Calgary, Alberta and grew up across Canada as a military child. Inspired at a young age by the original Top Gun, he set his sights early on becoming a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot. He enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces in 2000 under the regular officer training plan and graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada in 2000 After commissioning, he completed on the job training at squadrons nationwide, flying in the back of multiple aircraft and discovering that his true calling lay in rotary wing search and rescue. In 2010, Pete earned his wings at three Canadian Forces Flying Training School and was selected to fly the CH-one 149 Cormorant.
Bryan:Posted first to four forty two Transport and Rescue Squadron in Comox, he embraced West Coast SAR operations before moving to one hundred three Search and Rescue Squadron in Gander where he served as a line pilot, instructor pilot, instrument check pilot and later pilot lead. In 2018, he was chosen as the rotary wing search and rescue exchange officer with the United States Coast Guard or USCG in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Flying just under one thousand hours on the MH 60 t Jayhawk, he strengthened Canadian American interoperability through intensive joint training and cultural exchange. Promoted to major in 2020, he completed an additional two years with the USCG before returning to Ottawa to work in the directorate of air readiness. Pete assumed command of one zero three SAR Squadron in 2024 leading the RCAF's busiest SAR unit through a high operational tempo, major rescues, and key organizational initiatives.
Bryan:In 2025, he returned to Ottawa to support future RCAF capability development and reunite with his wife, Chantel. With more than 4,000 flying hours and 217 star missions, Pete considers it a privilege to serve with Canada's search and rescue community. Twenty five years after joining the CAF, the calling remains as meaningful as ever. These things we do that others may live, rescue. So Pete, take us back to the beginning.
Bryan:When did aviation shift from a childhood inspiration to a real career goal?
Pete:So honestly, it started with Top Gun much like probably a lot of my generation joining the military and wanting to fly. I was looking at I wanted to be a fighter pilot, then I realized where they were located, and and that wasn't really ideal for for me back, you know, back in the early days. So I was hoping at that point to fly multi engine fixed wing and eventually fly for Air Canada. And, yeah, kinda threw a couple twists and turns, ended up going rotary wing by choice and ended up in the SART community, which has been absolutely amazing.
Bryan:How did the military lifestyle growing up shape your adaptability and interest in flying?
Pete:Well, like, growing up as a military kid kinda meant that you were good at packing boxes and making new friends everywhere you went and making them quickly. So it it taught me very early. You know, you had to be able to adapt. Change was kinda constant. New schools, new provinces, you know, new weather patterns, and kinda aviation almost felt like a bit of an extension of that.
Pete:You know, you're always you're planning, but you're also always adapting to, you know, what's next and and all the constant changes you're going through. So, yeah, it it just the two kinda meshed. I loved the idea of flying until I actually got into it. And then once I started, it was an obsession. It was phenomenal.
Bryan:Yeah. You talked about the skill of making friends quickly. It's funny because that's actually a pretty important skill within the military as well because there's so many times where you're on a course for like a week, two weeks. You spend time with all these great people. And then sometimes you'll end up like sparking a friendship on one of those courses that you'll keep in touch with those people for like the rest of your career.
Pete:Yeah. Absolutely. And and the military is an awesome place in that, you know, a lot of the people that you meet, you kind of already have, like, this baseline level of trust and things that are in common. So it's it's super easy to to kind of pick it up from there and be like, okay. You're you're a good dude or a good dudette.
Pete:You're an awesome individual, and and it just kinda, kicks off. And, yeah, I think the other huge positive thing about the military is that you're not necessarily in one location forever, and you end up moving to places that you probably would have never have chosen to live in. Mhmm. Which can be good or bad, but, you know, the good the good from it is, again, you end up make meeting people that you would have never never met, in another life.
Bryan:Yeah. Yeah. I totally agree with that. You mentioned also that your original plan was to fly with Air Canada, I think you said. What ended up changing that to the military?
Pete:So it was actually, Greg's current squadron, four two four squadron. I was doing OJT. OJT being on the job training. I was two LT at that point, and a couple of the senior pilots had you know, they're trying to convince me to go one way or the other. I'd I took a flight on the Griffin at the time, which was a ton of fun.
Pete:And they're like, hey. Well, you know, we're on Slash. We're on the night shift for for the c 01:30. If we get called out, do you wanna come with us? And it was, like, kind of on queue.
Pete:The phone rings, duty ops picked up, and they're like, hey. We gotta start a mission in Overlake, Ontario. We obviously have lots of space, so come on board. And I was stoked. I was super excited, so I jump on the the Herc.
Pete:And as I'm, you know, kinda figuring out what the mission is all about, it turns out it was a a Canadian Coast Guard vessel that, I guess, lost generators or something. And they're having troubles navigating to shore, and they couldn't really see the shoreline from where they were. So our mission was to essentially fly overhead, locate the boat, and and stay overhead until they got close enough where they could just navigate themselves to the shoreline. That mission took six hours. And over the six hours, I endured some of the worst jokes that I have ever heard.
Pete:And from that moment on, I was kinda like, okay. Well, you know, at least in a helicopter, you know, max time I'll spend in a helicopter is three to four hours on average. You can land for breaks, and, hopefully, their jokes are a little bit better. So from that point on, I shifted gears to rotary wing and, yeah, SAR kinda I got the SAR bug early, after one of the helicopter flights in Trenton, and I haven't really looked back since.
Bryan:Yeah. And switching gears and looking into the rotary world, I guess, meant taking a step away from that path to Air Canada as well.
Pete:Yeah. Absolutely. And I I always figured it might be possible in the future. But to be honest, I I don't know if that'll ever be in the cards. But for now, I'm I I still love and enjoy the job.
Pete:So I have no intention of leaving anytime soon.
Bryan:Yeah. I know it's possible for helicopter folks to get their licenses and end up flying airliners still. But it's funny because most of the helicopter people I know are like, that really doesn't appeal to me after flying helicopters. Like, I don't wanna sit there for eight hours straight and level on autopilot. And I kinda get that.
Pete:Yeah. For sure. For sure. But also as a helicopter pilot, we typically end up having some form of back or neck issue. True.
Pete:So at at some point down the road, I'm I'm sure the straight and level autopilot and coffee or tea options isn't a bad thing either.
Bryan:It is nice. So we mentioned in your bio that you went to Royal Military College or RMC. What did life at RMC teach you about leadership before your first star mission?
Pete:I'd say RMC teaches you that leadership starts long before you're in charge of anything super important. And I'm not saying that being in charge of fellow cadets isn't that important, but it's kinda like just the first stepping stone to develop a leader. You kinda you learn very very quickly that, you know, leading by example is key. Getting to know your your subordinates is super important and being able to you know, depending on the role that you're in, being able to figure out who these people are and and use their strengths to the advantage of, you know, whether it's a squadron or or a section is is is critical to success for for a lot of people here.
Greg:So Mhmm.
Pete:Yeah. And, you know, it's just, it's about showing up prepared, owning mistakes, and and learning that the group essentially succeeds or fails together. So it's a great starting place to kinda develop these leadership traits and yeah.
Bryan:Yeah. Because all that stuff you just described is like hugely applicable to operational flying as well.
Pete:Of course. Yep. It is. You
Bryan:talk about having a whirlwind of on the job training or OJT at squadrons across the country and flying in many CAF aircraft. Where did you go?
Pete:So I spent some time in I spent a lot of time in Trenton, actually. Four two four squadron, four three six squadron, four two six. Spent some time in Comox as well, on the West Coast. And, basically, you know, if there was an aircraft that had room in it, I I wanted to be on board to kind of figure out what life was like
Bryan:Mhmm.
Pete:What life was actually like in that position and and with that community. And, yeah, as, you know, towards the end of my OTT experience, having that, one star mission that kinda made me take, you know, the other fork in the road, to go the road ruing side was, critical to this critical turning point for me, and, it is the reason why I'm here today.
Bryan:What was that mission?
Pete:It it was the same mission we talked about.
Bryan:Oh, the Coast Guard?
Pete:Yeah. The Coast Guard vessel on Lake Ontario, and the six hour Fair of of really terrible pilot jokes.
Bryan:Have you found the jokes are better in the rotary world? Or is there just not enough time to make the jokes?
Pete:I I would say, I think I gotta be honest. I I think we do it better.
Bryan:I don't know. Greg's shaking his head no.
Greg:The jokes aren't better. The community is different. The on between the crew is definitely different just because the proximity from the Sartex to the front end is so much closer than in the c one thirty. So Yeah. Different relationship, still bad, bad jokes.
Greg:Yeah. Fair. Fair. So
Bryan:you got into your flight training. What parts of pilot training challenged you the most?
Pete:I'd say the instrument flying was was definitely new to me. You know, when your body is screaming one thing and the instruments are telling you something else, you know, the correct answer is, you know, ignore your feelings and trust the instruments. Yeah. I I found that a a a challenge initially because my first instinct was always, you know, I know what's happening, so, you know, I'm gonna do the right thing.
Bryan:Mhmm.
Greg:It's
Pete:kinda like following GPS every once in a while. I'm like, yeah, I know a shortcut, and then it ends up not really being a shortcut at all.
Greg:For sure.
Pete:But yeah. And those lessons kinda come in handy later too, like, both in aviation and life. Sometimes you have built in instruments that help you along and you kinda have to trust that sometimes that process works.
Bryan:Yeah. The first time that you are disoriented in cloud and you start to feel like, no, I'm definitely turning and your attitude indicators telling you you're straight and level or vice versa. It's really, really uncomfortable, but you have to have to trust your instruments.
Pete:Yeah, absolutely.
Bryan:Yeah. Did you overcome those challenges? Is it just repetition?
Pete:Yeah. A lot of repetition and, you know, obviously knowing that in the training system, the instructors are always there to help you towards success as long as you're putting in the work. And, yeah, over time, realizing that, you know, whether it's instruments or or other crew members that you're relying on, you know, they're they're there to make things better, regardless of what it is.
Bryan:Mhmm. When you got selected on the Cormorant, how excited were you?
Pete:I was super excited. I wasn't expecting it at all, to be honest. I was expecting to go back to Trenton to fly the Griffin. So it was it was a huge surprise. And my wife being from the NCR, Elmer, Gatineau area, she was super happy to leave and and visit another part of Canada.
Pete:You know, obviously, she loved it here, but she always wanted to travel as well before I met her. And with me, she's been able to travel quite a bit.
Bryan:When you were selected for the Cormorant, what was the steepest part of the learning curve entering star flying?
Pete:Kind of like that, you know, that initial intro to instrument flying. It was learning to take inputs from other crew members and and, like, develop that bond, that trust, which, to be honest, happened very, very quickly. But, you know, it's a it's a big aircraft, complex systems. You know, I, in general, kinda know where my tail is, but it's 75 feet behind me. So it's, you know, a big jump from the Bell four twelve or the Bell two zero six.
Bryan:Yeah. You talk about trust there. Like, how big of a part does trust play in SAR?
Pete:It is everything. Being able to trust crew members, being predictable is is huge for the SAAR community. You know, it's it's not about just being skilled at what you're doing. It's it's also having every member on board believing in, you know, not just your abilities, but their own and and using each other's strengths to accomplish the mission.
Bryan:Yeah. Like I I think every community talks about teamwork and trust and those kinds of things. But I'm not sure I hear any community talk about it as much and as importantly as search and rescue.
Pete:Yeah. I mean, if you've ever listened to kind of the the intercom dance that we play in onboard Cormorant or probably onboard any any SAR helicopter, when you're, in a confined area or boat hoisting or or doing something challenging that requires every crew position to have a critical piece of information for the pilot flying, you know, it's super important.
Bryan:Yeah. So in your early operational flying in Comox, what shaped your philosophy as a SAR pilot?
Greg:It
Pete:was just the first couple SAR missions on the Cormorant were some of the more missions I'll I'll never forget. But, you know, you you're kinda overwhelmed because you're super excited. You're you're on a SAR mission. You sometimes you kinda forget what you're doing. I think the very first star mission, I flamed up an engine because I didn't turn a fuel valve on.
Pete:But very quickly, you realize, like, hey. It's no different than than training. You know, going through things smoothly and efficiently is important. Speed isn't necessarily as important, especially to start. But I quickly realized that as a SAR pilot, whether it's first officer or or aircraft commander, knowing your your limits, your abilities, your personal abilities, your personal limits, those limits of the aircraft are obviously super important.
Pete:But as we conduct SAR, there we we you know, you can't necessarily train for every circumstance. So when you're conducting something, having kind of those arcs and and knowing how to efficiently work within them is is super important. And I've always kind of maintained that since my upgrade in in Comox as aircraft commander and then moving on to different locations.
Bryan:Did you find it difficult at first to manage the intense emotions that can come up during search and rescue work? Or it's always a question I'm interested in asking when I speak with Sar Cruz because I can only imagine it would be really easy if you're not careful to let the intensity or the urgency of the situation affect you.
Pete:Absolutely. Like, I always go back to my first mission where I flamed out an engine, you know, on the first start. You know, I I kinda let the adrenaline and and the excitement get the best of me and and started forgetting things thinking that I had to be super fast. You know? And once I got over that hump, it's you know, you'll you'll encounter missions where it can be pretty emotionally draining, especially if there's, you know, children involved or or the the end result wasn't desirable, then, you know, it it definitely weighs on you as a as a human being and and as a pilot.
Pete:But it's also super important to realize that, you know, a lot of times when we get called out, we are the last you know, not that we're the last resort, but, we're kinda like the last hopes for for certain folks or certain missions to to even have a chance of success. And not every not every mission can be successful, but just the fact that we are out there and we're doing absolutely everything we can is super important, especially to those family members who are looking for that closure, or, you know, just knowing that you are out there doing absolutely everything you possibly can even though even if the the conditions are not favoring a a positive outcome.
Bryan:How do you how do you deal with that if if you do have one that, you know, let's say worst worst case say involves a child and it takes an emotional toll on you? How do you process that and deal with that after?
Pete:It's different for everybody. There's I'll back it up a little bit. I'd I'd say in the past, depending on the community, there there may have been a sense of, you know, you're a first responder, you're a cyber pilot, you're a cyber air crew. You just have to be able to deal with it and and move on because that's your job. And if you can't do it, nobody else is gonna do it.
Pete:And I think at the time, it was, while probably available, it was, you know, that that mental health aspect that, you know, r two m r is is is something that has become more readily available for sarcrews in in the recent years.
Bryan:R two MR stands for road to mental readiness, and it is a performance and mental health training and education program developed by the Canadian forces.
Pete:You know, being resilient, being aware of the help and the resources that are out there is is huge. Because at the end of the day, your level of stress and the and and somebody in a in a completely different field may may be equal, but, chances are you are exposed to things that most people never see and and and, to be honest, never wanna see.
Greg:Mhmm.
Pete:And so we need to be able to use these resources to ensure that we are fit to fly. We're always on our a game because you never know when you're that that one star mission that seemed like it could be a routine one turns into the most difficult star mission of of the year.
Bryan:Yeah. Greg, obviously, you Sartechs are face to face with a lot of tough situations. How do you deal with the emotional side of that?
Greg:I think a pausing and staying mission focused helps to understand the best outcome for the patient is not me being worried about what's going happen to me or worried about the pilot's job or the flight engineer's job. I'm worried about me and the other star tech and then getting the patients to the best level of care as fast as possible in the safest manner possible.
Bryan:Yeah. That helps during the moment. What about after the mission? When, you know, if you're thinking about it at home, how do you deal with it if it's been a tough one?
Greg:I think you just play it back in your head and then try to figure out where you can improve to learn from your mistakes. If you felt like you made mistakes, I mean, you're probably always going to feel like you made a mistake or could have done something better, maybe not a mistake, but realizing that the outcome is the outcome, regardless the person got themselves in trouble or the incident happened and you didn't put them in that spot, you're there to provide assistance. So the best you can. We learned that early on. Think when we ride in the paramedic program at the beginning, you kind of learn that from the seasoned paramedic crews that drive around all day, picking people up in ambulance.
Greg:They've seen that for a lot of years and they kind of teach that early. Hey, we're, we're, we're here to help somebody and it's their emergency. We can't make it our emergency. We got to make sure we return, them to safety, but we also need to return so we can rescue another person in another day. So if we're, if we're not mitigating risk and we're being bit of a cowboys, then there could be a chance that we don't go back and we don't make it home.
Greg:So how are going help the next person if we, we don't pay attention to what we're doing?
Bryan:For sure. Okay. So we're going to talk quickly about SIF MAP or the Canadian Forces Member Assistance Program. This program is for regular force members, reserves who are on duty during an incident, and parents and siblings of CAF regular and reserve force members who are injured or who die while in service. The program provides direct access to telephone counseling services twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
Bryan:From my own personal experience, you can call or use their online chat feature to make an appointment. They then set you up with a professional and I believe you get 10 free mental health sessions. For more details, I highly encourage you to Google CFMAP, that's C F M A P, and click on the canada.ca link. The beauty of this program is it's free and confidential, so no one in the CAF will know you used it, not your supervisor or chain of command, and not your doctor. I don't say that to encourage people hiding their conditions from their doctor.
Bryan:I personally think it's important to be open with your doctor about what you're going through, but if you're afraid to ask for help, it's a great way to dip your toes in the water confidentially. So how do you contact them? Listen closely everyone, take out your phone and save this number because you or someone you love may need it one day. The number is 60708. Again, that's 60708.
Bryan:And now on with the show. So, Pete, do you have an early training moment where things didn't go to plan and it taught you something that was a lasting lesson?
Pete:Yeah. I feel like any pilot in the RCF will have many scenarios where it didn't go as planned. And and I I think the you know, I think some of the most valuable moments are are when the plan falls apart super early, and you're able to kinda reset and adapt and, you know, basically use everything you have and and come up with a new one on on the fly. And and that's pretty much kinda what SAR teaches you is stubbornly sticking to a bad plan is probably worse than than stopping and coming up to with a with a new one to push forward and and come out with a successful outcome.
Bryan:Yeah. The more SAR air crew that I talk to, the more I'm learning that SAR is all about constantly adapting to new conditions, making a new plan that makes sense, creative thinking, constantly working against, like, constraints and how to get around those and how to keep everybody safe. Like, it's it's been very interesting to learn about that mindset.
Pete:Yeah. It's it's, you know, there's a touch of it there just being a pilot in general, but it definitely in the star world ends up be becoming crucial, when it comes to, you know, police or standby and and even just planning a training day for for a SAR crew. You can come up with the best plan in the world and, you know, whether it's the weather doesn't permit it or, you know, you have a stag on the aircraft or you get called out, you know, mid training evolution, it's kinda like, okay. Time to, you know, giddy up. Let's let's get things rolling and and switch gears and and get the job done.
Greg:Yeah. You
Bryan:became an instructor pilot and instrument check pilot. How did teaching refine your own skills and decision making?
Pete:Quite a few things. I I find teaching teaching kind of forces a little
Greg:bit of
Pete:honesty. You can't hide behind this is how I do it, because some when somebody asks why, you you have to you have to know what you're what you're talking about, know what you're teaching. It makes you sharper, And it also teaches you to allow for people to you know, as long as they're not breaking any rules and and, you know, the the outcome is successful, it it also teaches you that, you know, there isn't just one way to do something. Mhmm. You know, there's there's a 100 different ways you can execute a star mission, and, ninety ninth of them can be successful.
Pete:And just being okay with, you know, things aren't aren't necessarily going the way you would have done it, but it was still safe and effective. And and I think that's super important.
Bryan:And a challenging skill too. Right? Because our natural inclination is like, well, that's not how I would have done it. Hey. Have have you thought about trying this?
Bryan:But, like, if that person is being successful, like you said, safe and effective, then, you know, maybe their way is okay too.
Pete:Yeah. Absolutely. And and, you know, the some of the, best star pilots I've seen out there, you know, they all they'll often take strengths from different people. And and, you know, over time, by the time they get to their AC checkride, you can kinda you can kinda see, like, oh, he he kinda took this technique from this individual, and
Greg:he Mhmm.
Pete:He learned this on this mission. And it it's it's amazing to watch, people kinda develop and grow into mature SAR aircraft commanders. Cool. Except at the end of the day, there's you know, it's it is a ton of responsibility, resting on your shoulders when you, sign out an aircraft.
Bryan:Yeah. Absolutely. It is. So you were posted to one zero three Squadron in Gander where you were exposed to East Coast weather. What difference did those experiences make in how you approach flying?
Pete:It it taught me respect. Hit Newfoundland weather is the weather doesn't care about your rank, your schedule, your confidence level, your abilities. It's it rewards essentially, you know, like, preparation, humility, and and good crew coordination at the end of the day. And it pretty much punishes everything else. So, I mean, you could think you're the best pilot in the world, and and, that that weather will will stop you in your tracks.
Pete:It is and, you know, the weather on the East Coast at at times, you know, you see the forecast, you're like, hey. It's actually not that bad, and you get there and it's near zero zero. And you're kinda like, okay. Time for a new plan. You know?
Pete:This is this is not gonna work out well. Yeah. It's just a totally different vibe from from my couple years of flying in in Comox and definitely more extremes and and, yeah, longer range missions as well. So, you know, you might go through pretty much four different seasons en route to to a Sar case, by the time you get there. And and when you're by the time you're ready to go home, all of those, scenarios, may have changed for better or worse.
Bryan:Yeah. It sounds like it's pretty wild out there.
Pete:It can be for sure.
Bryan:So you were selected to do an exchange posting down in Cape Cod with the US Coast Guard. What training and operational philosophies did you bring home from your time flying the MH 60 t Jayhawk in Cape Cod that were different from the Canadian approach?
Pete:The Americans were phenomenal down there. They're very welcoming. The Jayhawk is also a very, very capable helicopter. It my time down there reinforced the fact that even though you can have the same job or the same role, and want the same outcome, the way you got there could be completely different. And at times, I found myself flying the Jayhawk, you know, mid hoist, and it felt like I was flying a Cormorant.
Pete:You know, I I could swear it was a flight engineer in the back with a couple of Sartecs. And then whether it was a checklist item or, you know, terminology would come up, and I was like, alright. I'm not in Canada anymore. This is the US Coast Guard. I have to do it this way first.
Pete:I I I found that was very, very interesting. But it again, it reinforced the fact that you can you can do something many different ways and still be very, very successful.
Bryan:Did you find there was anything that they did in a certain way that when you came back to Canada, you were like, hey, guys, you know, The US does it this way. Have we ever thought about have we ever thought about this?
Pete:It's I I think the overall experience in learning how to deal with different crew personalities, You know, coming back to Canada, it it was very, very helpful. I think it helped me mature as a a SAR aircraft commander. It I I think as a Canadian, SAR pilot or Canadian SAR crew, I think we do things very, very well. Mhmm. You know, obviously, never perfect.
Pete:And if I feel like if if you ever stop learning, then something's wrong. But for the most part, I I found we did things very, very well. I'd say one item that was different with them, they'd often have a lot of slack in their hoist cable when, doing heavy seas hoisting, and this came up a little bit during the Atlantic Destiny case a few years ago, where that slack allowed for, you know, the big sea state to be, easily absorbed within within that cable slack and and kind of prevented snags or or from, from the flight engineer, or flight mechanic in the US Coast Guard's crew from having to make too too many adjustments with how much cable is paid out. So that that was a I think one key difference that as Canadian kinda took home and and, you know, it sounds like depending on the circumstance or the SAR mission, our flight engineers have also kind of adapted when the scenario makes sense.
Bryan:Cool. Starting in 2024, you led one zero three SAR Squadron, the busiest operational SAR Squadron in the country. How did that leadership experience prepare you for the MSC Baltic three rescue?
Pete:To to be honest, I I don't think there was much more that could prepare me for the MSC Baltic. You know, having command of the squadron kinda teaches you trust is important. It teaches you that you have, you know, a 100 different personalities serving under you, all wanting to do good things, but it's quite often the small things, the small details that really matter, that matter to the members, that matter to the overall squandering morale, and being able to adapt, admit mistakes, and being able to push forward is super important. And I and and I guess that would translate to the MSC Baltic in that, you know, it it taught you to trust the abilities of everybody. You know, just because you're the aircraft commander doesn't mean you know what's best for the Sartech or the flight engineer.
Pete:And using everybody's strengths to bring you to that successful conclusion of the mission is what it's all about. I I think that was the the biggest kinda anything to prepare me was, was exactly that. Just Okay. Trust trusting your your your subject matter experts and and making sure that, you know, the the decisions that you're coming up with make sense and and you have the best chance of accomplishing the mission in a successful manner, safe in a successful manner, and and bringing everybody home
Bryan:Yeah.
Pete:Safe at the end of the day.
Bryan:Which is huge. Right? Like, that's that's like the big skill that any aircraft commander needs is trusting your subject matter experts. Like, have a whole aircraft full of people who are expertly trained and know their job. And it's not your job to like, yeah, you got to know what everyone's job is to an extent, but they're the ones who are the experts.
Bryan:They're the ones who are going to feed you all that information and help you to have everything you need to make the right decisions.
Pete:Absolutely. And then, you know, we have our as you probably already know, we have our annual maritime extraction exercise, that we have kind of nicknamed boat camp. And, you know, these annual events are a chance for one zero three squadron to get together and and really nail down, like, hey. This is our baseline level of trust, and, you know, the skills may or may not be there. We may have new members from from the West Coast or another squadron, and that's our chance to kinda get the reps in, in a concentrated, format, with some sea state, with various vessels and and really nail down, what works and what doesn't, and give our crews a chance to experiment as well with different techniques.
Pete:And and, you know, the procedures are all pretty much the same, but they're you know, sometimes there are different techniques on, finding better references on a boat or or, you know, for flight engineers to kinda con the aircraft, in, and kinda how that, transpires to, a smooth and successful boat hoist.
Bryan:Awesome. So we're going to shift gears here and talk to Greg about his training as a Sartech. But before we go through that, let's go through Greg's bio. Warrant officer Gregory Hudson was born in Calgary, Alberta in 1983 and enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces in 2004. He began his career as a combat engineer deploying to the Zari District Of Afghanistan in 2008, an experience that shaped his resilience, leadership, and commitment to service.
Bryan:Following his tour, Greg pursued advanced qualifications including the combat diver course, helicopter insertion instructor course, and static line parachute course. In 2014, he was selected for the elite search and rescue technician or SARTEC occupation and graduated from SARTAC course 48 in 2015. His first posting was to four thirteen Squadron in Greenwood, Nova Scotia where he began his operational SAR career. He later moved to four twenty four Transport and Rescue Squadron in Trenton, Ontario serving as a team leader and contributing in medical, dive, training, and standards roles. In 2022, he was posted to one zero three SAR Squadron in Gander as deputy SAR Tech lead and chief check.
Bryan:Promoted to warrant officer in 2023, he became SAR Tech lead at one of the busiest rescue units in the RCAF. Over his career, Greg has accumulated more than 2,000 flying hours on the C130H, C130J, CH 146, and CH one forty nine, completed over 500 SAR parachute jumps, and helped save the lives of countless Canadians across the country. He is currently posted to four two four Transport and Rescue Squadron in Trenton, Ontario. Greg has been married for nineteen years and is the proud father of two children. So, Greg, what first drew you to military service and the combat engineers?
Greg:Well, I was post nine eleven and some of my buddies and I talked about joining the military when I was living in Calgary and we never did. And then I moved moved to Ottawa. My parents had born there. So they moved back after my grandfather passed away. My mom wanted to be closer to family.
Greg:And then I stayed in Calgary by myself for a little bit, and then I decided to join them. So when I went back, when I went to Ottawa, I didn't speak French because I grew up in Calgary jobs. Weren't that great. I just had done high school. I didn't have a lot of post secondary, options.
Greg:Was going to go back to school and then I thought I had to pay for that. So let's try something else. I joined the military and never looked back.
Bryan:Awesome. You ended up serving in Afghanistan. You mentioned you joined post 09/11. So that was obviously a big reality for anyone, especially who joined the combat arms. How did your Afghanistan deployment shape you as a person and as an operator?
Greg:I think it helped to build my mental toughness and realized how much you can accomplish as a team and that it's not about you. It's about the people next to you left and right of you are the ones that you really depend on and they depend on you. So building that, think that was a a great opportunity to learn how to rely on other people.
Bryan:Did you have any experiences there that would, like, foreshadow that one day you would be a Sartech? Or was there anything that kind of shaped you there? Not really. I did t triple c before I deployed. T triple c is tactical combat casualty care.
Greg:I also did a search course down in The States. Went down to St. Louis and did a search course there, which was more building searches and looking for hidden weapons and IEDs and stuff like that in a US facility that was quite advanced. So I don't know, maybe that led me to want to be, you know, search and rescue. That's probably what I say I did the most in Afghanistan was search for things, search for bombs, search for IDs, clear routes.
Greg:And then TCCC was kind of the next, job. So the combat casualty care. And that kind of got me a little bit started medicine. I didn't know how much I'd like it until I kind of got into SAR more. But yeah, that was a little exposure at least.
Bryan:Do you think that staying cool under pressure? Like I got to imagine searching for bombs is a pretty harrowing experience. Do you think that trying to stay calm in those situations has helped you now as a SAR tech when you're staying calm in operational situations?
Greg:Yeah. I'm sure it did. I I'd always, even even back then, I knew I was more worried about my other section members. When they had to go forward with the metal detector and look on a route that we had already previously discussed was going to be a high hazard route or a suspected area because there had been previous IEDs planted there. So I was always more worried about them than myself.
Greg:And I think that translates into SAAR pretty well. I'm always more worried about my, the rest of my crew, my team members, or the people that were going to provide care for than, what the risk is to me, understanding the risk, not putting it at the front of my brain and not fogging my decision making on something that's not affecting me at the current moment.
Bryan:Wow. Yeah. I can't, honestly, I can't imagine doing that kind of work. My hats off to you guys for the work you did over there. Anyone who was on the ground there.
Bryan:Well, anyone who went there in general, but anyone especially was on on the ground there in a combat arms role, I have huge respect for. So, you know, I hate saying that the cliche, but thank you for your service over there.
Greg:My pleasure.
Bryan:Following your deployment, you completed training as a combat diver, heli insertion instructor, and in static line parachuting. What did each discipline teach you?
Greg:Paying attention to detail, like attention to fine details. And then depending on the person next to you, everything, combat diving, you're getting safety checked by your buddy and a supervisor. And then when you're underwater, that buddy is your lifeline to the surface. And then, you know, static line parachute jumping, you're getting checked by a parachute rigor, by a jump master. Someone else is picking the spot.
Greg:Like when you're a brand new jumper, someone else picks the spot where you get out of the plane. They trained you on the ground, what to do. And then the first time you jump out of a plane, that's you're kind of on your own. So you really rely on those systems that are already in place with everyone else checking on each other and paying attention to detail. Think this is very key.
Bryan:What's that like to know that your life and safety are in the hands of someone else and depending on their attention to detail?
Greg:I think that we have a great training program in the Canadian forces for all the different things. Helicopter insertion course I did, the combat diver course, the static line course, all those things. If you just see how much detail is into the preparation, like Pete was talking about being an instructor, you got to know what you're talking about. You're not just going in and making things off of, off of your experiences. You're following the publications and the procedures have been put in place for, very good reasons.
Greg:And I think that you learn to trust that over time. And like you said before, after you, pull a couple IDs out of the ground and, maybe parachuting out of airplanes, not as, as scary as it once seemed. Right? Yeah. That's fair.
Bryan:What inspired you to take on the challenge of StarTek selection in 2014?
Greg:Well, I was, posted to Petawawa, so lots of cans off up in that area with Seesaw and the JTF down the street. So a lot of my buddies were trying to move on to that past year to see what that was about and kind of gave that a thought. And then I kind of stepped back and realized I wanted to be there for my family for one thing. And then also to give back to Canadians, thought it was a great opportunity instead of realizing I'd be going over to another country, still providing security for Canada, but I could actually affect Canadians in Canada. I thought that was a great opportunity to give back to the country that's given me so much.
Bryan:Yeah. That makes sense. It's interesting the parallels and the differences between like special operations and Startex. Like obviously there's a lot of shared DNA in the selection process and the skills involved. The end product is something very different, but there's a lot of similar similarities there as well.
Greg:Yeah. Agree.
Bryan:Can you walk us through a moment in selection where you weren't sure you'd make it and what kept you going?
Greg:Yeah, I was thinking about that. I'm not sure if I ever had a spot where I didn't think I'd make it, probably things I could do better. Like I said before, I debriefed myself at the end of the day. I was felt I was quite ready. I've been training for years, with all the different courses I had done.
Greg:My training started very, very long before I even knew what a star tech was. I was training for what I did, something I didn't even know about. I had some, I had a solid resume, felt, pretty confident going in. Physical fitness was a top, top priority for me. So the kind of the only thing you can actually train for you know, the PT test, you know, the selection is going to be grueling from a physical standpoint.
Greg:So, I mean, spending nine months in Afghanistan carrying heavy packs through the desert is different than carrying heavy packs through the snowy terrain of Alberta, but, still carrying heavy packs, carrying heavy packs. So I thought I was pretty ready for that. I mean, were some moments definitely where I could, reflect back and wish I would have done something different, but all in all, was fairly confident, from my previous training that the army had given me.
Bryan:Yeah. Everyone has those moments too, right? In in life, in training, whatever, like we're all doing our best, but you're always going to have moments where you look back and think, well, I could have done this different. I could have done this better. And that's just part of learning and becoming a better person, a better professional, in whatever you're doing.
Greg:Yeah. I agree.
Bryan:Once you had completed selection, which portion of the Sartech course do you think pushed you the hardest?
Greg:I think it probably the medical portion just that was what I had least exposure to besides TCCC, which is just a little bit of a glimpse into medicine. It's not at a full paramedic program. And I had two young kids and my son was five months old when we went to Comox and I took my whole family. I took my wife and my two kids. We drove across the country and got a rented a condo in Comox and, yeah, the kids were living, down the road from the base with my wife and I was driving to the base every morning to do PT with the course and start medical training till four or 05:00 at night.
Greg:And then I'd drive home at the end of the day. And I'd had to be a dad, be a husband, spend family time, get the kids ready for bed, support my wife who'd been doing that all by herself all day long and then get everyone set up for, for the nighttime routine. And then once everyone went to bed, you know, 09:00 at night, I'd stay up and study, for another hour or two, depending on what was going on the next day. And then I'd hit bed at, you know, 11:00 at night, it'd be up next morning, 05:30 to do it again. And it was a different thing, right?
Greg:Medicine, medicine, more, more detailed, having to learn anatomy and physiology and all the, all the stuff that goes along with that. I already had parachute darted, scuba dived. I'd spent time in the snow in the Arctic, in the, in the army, been in helicopters, rappelling, mountaineering and stuff like that in the engineers. So I thought that, those stuff, that stuff came already had a little exposure to it as SAR definitely I got leveled up. But yeah, in the army I had exposure to all that stuff where the medicine was very new to me.
Bryan:Yeah. Not to mention, well you did mention, but that sounds so difficult to do all that stuff and then to still have to go home, be a dad, be a husband, balancing your personal and professional life. But I guess if you think about it, like it's not like that's going to be your career, right? Like you're going to be working hard, you're going be training hard and you're still going to be a husband and father. So you got to find a way to balance all that.
Greg:Yeah. There's great advantages too. We got to the pediatric portion of the co of the medical course. I had two young kids at home. I had guys that I never had a kid.
Greg:I got a five month at home. Well, I know how to, if they're choking, what to do. I know how to pick them up and roll them around. I know how to swaddle them. I know how to do all that stuff.
Greg:I got a four year old daughter running around the house, getting bumps and bruises. So I knew how to get down to her level, on, you know, kneel down, talk to her, look in her eyes, assess if she's really hurt or not hurt, sick or sick or not sick. I had a wife too, that I could, Hey, let me practice giving you an IV. You're harder to get an IV on than my, my buddy whose veins are pumping because they're working out a couple of times a day and they're fit SarTechs. And I got to try to find a vein on this, you know, a light skinned female with these small little veins and at least do other assessments.
Greg:And so I, it was nice to have, them at home. Right. I can, Hey, I want to run some training. I want to practice approaching a patient and assessing them. So my wife could lay on the couch and I can walk up and, Hey, are you okay?
Greg:And, and kind of go through that patient assessment model. So the practical side of things, really helped that way. And like I said, studying the books was just something you got to do, but, yeah, it was, it was nice to have them in there and that my wife and I joke around, like that was the most time we'd ever been together consistently. Cause on that part of the SAR course, you go home, you go to school. It's Monday to Friday, you go home every day, every night you get to go home and sleep in your own bed.
Greg:So, and then once you start to do, the Arctic ops and parachute stuff, you go down and deploy to other, locations. So you're not seeing your family. But being in the army before that, that's, the most consistent I'd been home back to back in a in the whole in my whole time being married with my wife.
Bryan:Yeah. People forget that like schools can be tough for various reasons, whether you're an instructor or a student, they may not be like, you know, a lot of people who are instructing, they want to be operational still. Students like they think about school, it's going to be high pressure, but it's also going to be one of the times in your career where you actually have a predictable, stable, you know, relatively Monday to Friday job.
Greg:Yeah. And we had a great staff at SIFSAAR and COLMACS that they could stay after after hours and run us through anything we had questions about. They would send you home with homework to, so you could have stuff to look up. And on the Saturday or Sunday, if you wanted to come in and do any training, whether hands on equipment or review procedure or protocol, they were always, available to come help. So if you said I need some assistance and we had a couple, solid, guys on my course, from, from course 48, a couple ex medics and doctors as people that were really able to help and explain it in more than one way.
Greg:Right. The staff was great at doing that, but you know, not everyone learns the same. So, another point of view is always great. And someone from the ground level who's done it before is very helpful.
Bryan:Yeah. So you ended up completing SAR course 48 in 2015 and were then posted to Greenwood. What surprised you the most about your first tour as a SAR tech?
Greg:I'd say that, what most surprised me when I got to Greenwood was the lack of allocated time for physical fitness. We had to really get allocated time for SAR flying YFR, requirements and currencies, but staying, you had to be fit to become a star tech. And then it just seems like when you got to the units, was, left to your own devices to maintain that fitness. The gym in Greenwood was a phenomenal one of the, I'd say one of the best in the, in the SAR basis for sure across the country. So, and it wasn't always like that.
Greg:I think Dylan Weller was a good advocate for increasing the size, the footprint and the equipment in the gym. But it, I mean, having a culture of people, that wanted to work out and wanted to be in the gym was great. And it always has been at the SAAR bases. It's just finding the time of the day and trying to make sure an email or reading a publication is not more important than your own physical and mental health.
Bryan:For sure. And I think that's something that, like, most physical fitness minded members run into once they're at a big base is it is difficult to find the time and make the time to stay fit. Obviously, it's a lot more of a life and death part of your your life with what you do. That being fit isn't just about being healthy. It's also about being effective and staying alive with the work you do.
Bryan:But, yeah, I think that's something that is a is a common worry amongst people who wanna try to stay fit.
Greg:Yeah. You just was in Petawawa before, so I mean, the the gym in Petawawa and same with Edmonton and Valkyrie, the army based gyms, engaged down there like Olympic style gyms, right? They've got massive field houses with fitness equipment, sprawling across a massive footprint. And you go to the air force bases and they're a bit smaller. So having those gyms at the SAR squadrons where you're on standby, you can load the helicopter or the C one thirty and then go to the gym for forty minutes and then get dressed and go do a flight, go do a brief and then go fly.
Greg:Or the pilots stop by where you're in the gym and make a plan for the day. I think that's a huge benefit that the SAR community has the gym, right, integrated into the units and you're not trying to go to the to the base gym, from time to time. You can use them. But, yeah, I think that's huge to to keep people physically and and mentally healthy.
Bryan:Without a doubt. Absolutely. So in Trenton, worked in medical dive training and standards roles, which had the biggest impact on who you are today?
Greg:I think training section, definitely did. All the other sections, got it. I think it had a great impact on the shop, but on, on my personal outlook on how things get done, I think training did. I learned a lot about contracting and dealing with outside agencies when you're in medical section, you're dealing with, The team in medical section and maybe the pharmacy and some, other, other outset, I said resources. But when you're in training, you really feel like you're trying to just with everybody you're talking to the Herc flight commander, the Griffin flight commander, the ops.
Greg:So you're talking, you're just organizing. So you guys are talking to the admin to figure out how to pay for things. You want to set training up it's contracting or, finding locations, hotels, rental vehicles, logistics of it is just, I think so, so much, above and beyond the other sections that you learn how to be a logistics, guru, that you didn't expect that you were going to do when you joined SAAR that you'd have so much administration and logistics, but it's, what you need to do to get the quality training and the job done.
Bryan:Mhmm. As a team leader and SAAR tech lead, how did your philosophy of readiness evolve beyond when you were just a team member?
Greg:I think when you're a team member, you were focused on being good at your skills as a team member. Like, can I tie this interlocking bowline quickly? Can I do this properly? Can I, can I, you know, make sure my parachute, my jump master checks are done properly? Can I do this?
Greg:And then as a team leader or as a STL, you're making sure everyone else has that. So you're kind of looking on other people. So maintaining your skills and then making sure that you're providing them the opportunity to grow and develop their skills.
Bryan:Yeah, that makes sense. Can you describe an early career mission or training event that tested your judgment under pressure?
Greg:Yeah. I talked about this one before on another podcast actually. And it says, I did, we did a mission. I think it was my, probably my first mission or one of my first in Greenwood. We, I was a third man.
Greg:So we take to normally fly two Sarateks and I was the third, under training. And I went on a crew, we went on a cruise ship out in the middle of the ocean. It was a hot day, but we got to be in our dry suits. So I'm buttoned up right into my dry suit. I'm dripping sweat all over the place.
Greg:I'm doing all the work because I'm the, I'm the new guy. So they're kind of like giving me the opportunity to learn and do stuff and kind of like, so I'm carrying more gear. I'm like, I gotta go check on the patient. They got a plan. You know, get down to the deck of the boat.
Greg:I bring in the guideline in the basket in the gear in, and I'm kind of cleaning it up, like getting it ready so I can go and assess the patient. And the one of the cruise ship workers is looks at me and I'd sees the sweat just pouring off my face and asked me if I need a towel. And I just kind of like had to back from like, just telling them, you know, telling them off basically to be like, yo, get out, don't even talk to me right now. And I had to take a break to be like, no, I'm good. Thanks.
Greg:So like, and they're looking at the bar on the cruise ship filled with, with drinks. And they're just like sitting there having a great time and we're out there sweating to death. I think I, you know, dumped a, almost a liter of, of sweat out of my dry suit at the end of the day, we home, sopping wet, everything was soaked to this. We're out in the middle of the Atlantic. So we need to be dressed up for the, for the water, but the weather up in the helicopter's warm, we were above the clouds.
Greg:The sun's beaming through the, the bubble windows is kind of like a magnifying glass in that helicopter, when the sun's beaming in it. So that was pretty, uncomfortable, but over the years we've kind of come accustomed to it with, you know, cold weather and hot weather exposure that we put ourselves through constantly in the Sarcruz.
Bryan:Man, that sounds brutal. You have made more than 500 jumps. Does the job ever become routine or does it feel different every time?
Greg:Yeah, I think it's still beca feels different every time. I don't think you can let it become routine. Yesterday, a mission focused, I think the risk of a, of a training jump is. So far, like every day, every day we fly on the C one thirty, we're going to do, you know, two, one to two jumps minimum. And that you can't just let those be benign ever.
Greg:I mean, there's a lot of moving parts. You're moving 130 knots over the ground at, you know, say relatively low altitudes through 2,000 feet are jumped minimum. So for training, so you've got another team team member on board, maybe two, maybe three people that you're taking care of as from a team leader perspective, you know, you're making sure everything's so you're always watching yourself and. You know, you have two people on board. You got to back each other up, but you've got to make sure that your equipment and your procedures are ready and dialed in too, so that you're not relying on that person to catch all your mistakes.
Greg:You're relying on that person to catch the, the anomaly mistake that might happen or, or that someone's tangled in a comms war wire on their foot or something on their parachute slowly came on, on done or got caught on a seat or something on your turning that you want them to see those hazards. And if you're, you're absolutely neglectful, then I think those hazards just amplify, immensely. Mhmm.
Bryan:So as we get ready to talk about the Baltic rescue in episode two, I'd like to talk about some of the philosophies that kind of go into SAR and preparing you for a mission like that. What does true SAR teamwork mean to each of you, and why is it critical on days like 02/15/2025?
Greg:I think Pete said it earlier, trust. Knowing everyone knows their job and you trust people to do their job and you understand the aspects of their job, but not their job. And you had to let them, manage that piece. I think as I think as you grow and develop as a team leader, as an ACE, you understand what other people's, jobs more and more are, but for the team member to understand what the pilots doing up front, I don't I don't think that's necessary. He needs to understand that that pilot's got the helicopter and he's got us, and he's gonna take care of us, take us to the mission, and bring us home safely.
Pete:Yeah. I I I I'd agree with that. And I'd also add in there predictability and and, you know, having that that one standard across the board, whether you're flying in Gander, Greenwood, or Comox, a SAR AC for the most part is gonna be exactly that, a SAR AC. You know, a somebody from Comox, maybe a little more familiar with flying in the mountains, for example. So that's where you could expect a little more exposure and experience and and someone who's a little more comfortable flying in the hills.
Pete:But it you know, the the opposite would be, you know, in Greenwater Gander, you know, flying, two, three hundred miles offshore or doing a, you know, a significant transit through, some pretty significant weather systems and and, you know, transiting nine hours to do a search and, or, you know, a boat a very challenging boat hoist and then having to transit another, three or four hours, back to, you know, the nearest point of land to to do a patient transfer. So, yeah. The the the SAR teamwork is is, you know, knowing what you're gonna gonna get at as a standard, truly trying to know your your your crew members. So, you know, as a SAR EC, it was really important for me to not just know crew positions, but, to know who I'm flying with. And and, as your exposure and your trust kinda builds, you know, when the when the when the time really matters, you know, there are no questions.
Pete:It's, you know, this is what we're doing and everybody's on board. Yep. Cool. And, you know, you you continue, you push forward.
Bryan:Looking back across your careers, do you have any moments or missions that were essential preparation for the Baltic three rescue?
Pete:So at the end of the day, like, the Baltic was a mission that was very different than than the 200 plus other ones that I've done, in that it incorporated a little bit of everything. It had the difficulty level of just getting on scene. It had the, challenging boat hoist to a boat that, you know, despite being grounded wasn't stable. It had the just the sheer number of of sailors that we're bringing on board, which wasn't necessarily the the plan from the get go, but, you know, being able to adapt as as the mission kinda unfolded in front of us, was key. And, you know, all the all the training evolutions we've done in the past are little snippets of of the MSC Baltic in general.
Pete:And I and I'd say for that mission specifically, every single crew position was used, to the full extent. Sartechs, flight engineers, flying pilot, nonflying pilot, everybody was busy, and everybody played a critical role in in making sure that mission went as smoothly and as safely as as it could be, given the conditions of that day.
Greg:That agree with what Pete said, that relentless training, we've not trained in those exact weather conditions, but we've, we're flying in and out of Newfoundland at a Gander at a St. John's. The weather has always been low visibility, windy, gusty, gusty weather. By taking the machine out and training in those environments, you're ready for the mission when it comes. So building realistic missions, training missions that simulate what we'd be doing for real.
Greg:And I think on BoCam, I don't if it was that year, maybe the year before we did a ferry, one of the ferries out, a large vessel. And we went to hoist down to that and they didn't have 20 people on board, but it still had, you know, seven casualties, on the deck that we all triaged and went through and started to talk as a team, how to pack them up and how to move them. We didn't put them back all on the, the Cormorant. But we had the ability to go down there and talk about it and say, okay, how do we do this? How would we do that?
Greg:And just kind of always talking and sharing the missions that you've done and the training that you've done with each other. Cause not everyone can be on every mission. Not everyone can be on every training flight. So spreading that knowledge around and then just continuing to spend your days training and not waste, not waste the daylight, and, and just fly around and look at sightsee, go train and do the job. Yeah.
Pete:And I think the, the other part of training, you know, whether you're in Comox, Greenwood, or Gander, I found you weren't just training to, you know, check off a currency and, k, you're good for another thirty or ninety days or, you know, you're good for this semiannual requirement. A lot of folks really took it to heart and, you know, it it might be a simple hoist and maybe you hold a fairly stable hover hover to the point where the flight engineer doesn't have to say much to you, but, you know, you it still means you're drifting a foot or two, left, right, up, down, and being able to kinda say, okay. Well, I I can I can hold it within this, you know, two foot box? It means I can probably do better. Like, let's let's try and bring that down to a couple inches.
Greg:Mhmm. You
Pete:know, it's it's it it'll be impossible to be perfect, but, you know, you're always striving for better. You're always striving to challenge yourself to make things harder so that, you know, when when the time comes and you gotta the skill needs to take over to to get your your yourself and the crew out of a a challenging scenario, it's you're you're kind of sprung loaded and prepared to do it.
Bryan:Right on. So how do you improve SAAR, whether that's skills, procedures, equipment, or culture?
Greg:I think, pushing training to the, to the max. And Pete said it before leading from the front, right? We're we're leading, we're showing the troops how to do it, what we're doing in the back from a Sartex perspective. We need to, I can't expect someone to do something I'm not willing to do or not able to do. And then make sure we push the training so that, we, we sweat in the training so we don't bleed in the real.
Greg:I don't think you can train too hard for a job that can kill you. So making sure you're like, you said, mother nature is relentless. You're not going to fight. We are going to win that fight. So you have to make sure you attack it from the other angles and have your skills and your SOPs and your communication and all the other factors are dialed in so that when something goes awry or something changes, you're able to adapt quickly and it's not the end of, of a mission or turns everyone into, like a sour day.
Pete:Okay. Yeah. I I'd, Greg hit hit the nail on the head there. The the training, absolutely. Honest debriefs, you know, and a culture where everyone on the crew, Not just that they can speak up, they they feel comfortable to to speak up and and and give you the feedback that ultimately will one day either say save your life or or or somebody on the crew.
Pete:And I I think the other a unique perspective, you know, as a SAR AC, I wasn't an aircraft commander at the time of of this mission, but upgraded to shortly or re qualified as an AC shortly afterwards. But, you know, in the role of the commanding officer for the squadron as well was to encourage my leads, and Greg was my Sartech lead and did a phenomenal job, was in was to encourage my leads to come up with things that I need to support. And whether that was training that was slightly outside of the the standard template, or, you know, finding just essentially finding ways to to improve, ourselves and and make ourselves more efficient, make ourselves more effective, That that was the goal. So it it was kind of a unique position where I didn't have just the role of a SAR aircraft commander. But as the COO, I was I was trying to balance the needs of the squadron, and our air crew with all the other competing priorities as well.
Bryan:Okay. So as you think back to everything prior to 2025, did either of you ever envision facing a mission of this magnitude?
Pete:I think in the back of our heads, we always know that there's a possibility. Like, the the the next star call out could be the big one.
Bryan:Yeah.
Pete:It it could be the star mission of the year, or it it could be, uber challenging. But it it's never one of those even even the most benign calls every once in a while. You know, you think, ah, this is super simple. We're gonna go out there, do a little quick little hoist and and come home. No big deal.
Pete:And then, you know, seven hours later, and multiple attempts, you realize that the the the game has changed quite a bit, and what you thought was the case, was was totally different. Right? So, I think that's the the amazing part about conducting SAR is no SAR mission, no two SAR missions are really alike. And your main goal is to use all your strengths and and, take everything that, all the tools that you've that you've, accumulated over your, experience in SAR, and making that work for you in that moment.
Greg:Yeah. I think from the SAR tech's perspective, we do a lot of training in the initial SAR course, on from MCI. So mass casualty incidents is something we've always been focused on and we've got procedures and protocols put in place for that. And so as a, as a brand new SAR tech, it's kind of like your final graduation before you graduate course, the final ops, they'll do, an MCI event where we'll parachute in, all your whole course, say 11 or 12 of you, whatever your course size is, you all parachute into an area near Jarvis Lake and they'll have thirty, forty people dressed up, muloged up and pretending to be injured. And you go through the sequence of triage, move and treat and transport them and get them off the point of injury to a casualty collection point and start to treat them there and then move them onto helicopters or back through vehicles.
Greg:And we practice this, kind of day, like I say, at the very end of your SAR course, you learn about it throughout the medical phase and then you, you do some small training and you do a big final, like, you know, exercise at the end of the course. And then when you get to your units, that's probably like an annual exercise that we're running, deer lake, which is our lands. So Pete mentioned the boat camp, which is our Marine extraction. And then we have a deer lake exercise, which is our land extraction. So you're always going to have a medical scenarios with what we call, you know, an MCI where you have more patients than care providers or more equipment is required than what you have.
Greg:So you're always in that spot where we're trying to overwhelm the care provider. I think that that training like that is, is a key to get the Saartex ready for, for stuff like this. We had a plane when we were in Deer Lake one year, there was a plane landing in St. John's called with, an emergency landing gear problems, 44 people on board. The call came in, the crew was at the airport getting ready to go do their training.
Greg:So they stopped and got gas. They called in, they called me on the phone and told me what was going on. I jumped in the truck with another star tech. We were fifteen minutes away from the airport. As we were driving to the airport, we passed another two star techs as a whole squadron deploys to that area who were on a run because they were on the night crew.
Greg:So they were on a run that morning, just doing a little PT. So we passed them. I rolled on the windows. I told them I didn't, this is the information I had. I didn't know what the outcome was going be.
Greg:If they can go back to their cabin, get their stuff ready. Because we might need another crew to get another helicopter and come help us. And so they turned around and as we drove away, we had the window down still. So they had to turn around and they were running the same direction we were driving. And the one StarTek was running as fast as the truck truck was driving full Terminator T 1,000 sprint.
Greg:And he's, and he said, this is what we train for. And anyways, we got to the, we got on the highway, we started driving back to the airport and then we got stood down because the plane landed safely. But, that was just a great reminder of, of what we train for, what we need to be ready for. And when you think about 44 people on board an aircraft, With injuries, then two Sarpex is not going to be enough. You need four, you need eight, you need 10, you need 16.
Greg:You got to throw everything at it. So I think we we've talked to our guys about that a lot. We practice that. I try to teach people like when they get a mission, what do you need? You need more people, you need more equipment.
Greg:And how much time do you have till you're on the target so that, can compress or expand your, your brain of what needs to get done and what needs to be accomplished in that time. And I think that mission that we didn't have, that we almost had in Newfoundland that time sets us up and keeps everyone quite aware of the, of the realities of the job and, the people that we're trying to effect a rescue on and how we need to be ready for that.
Bryan:Right on. Okay, guys. That is going to wrap up our conversation for today. I really enjoyed hearing about your path to SAR, the training experiences that shaped you both in the careers that have prepared you for the work you're doing now. When we reconnect, I am really looking forward to going through the Baltic 3 Rescue in detail and just kind of hearing your stories about what happened that day.
Bryan:So thank you so much for being here today.
Greg:Thanks for having me. Thank you.
Bryan:And fly safe.
Greg:Rescue. Rescue.
Bryan:Alright. That wraps up part one of our chat with Pete and Greg, where we talked about their paths to SAAR. Tune in next week as we dive into the exciting story of the Baltic three rescue. Do you have any questions or comments about anything you've heard in this show? Would you or someone you know make a great guest, or do you have a great idea for a show?
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Bryan:Thanks for listening. Keep the blue side up. See you. Engineer, shut down all four. Shutting down all four engines.