On Labor Day weekend, California National Guard Sgt. George Esquivel and his team flew their CH-47 Chinook into thick wildfire smoke to rescue families trapped in the burning woods near Fresno.
The Chinook is the Army’s big double-rotor helicopter. They flew it with the aft ramp down and the gunner window on the left side open. Below, trees burst into flames that rose 100 feet high. The crew checked on one another as the aircraft filled with smoke.
Cal Fire had granted permission for the rescue but warned that it would be dangerous. The California National Guard allowed Esquivel’s team to decide. The crew — the pilot, the co-pilot, Esquivel (a flight engineer), and another flight engineer — chose to go in as far as possible.
With essentially no visibility, the team had to use night vision goggles to fly. During my talk with Esquivel, I couldn’t keep the excitement from my voice. “Were you scared?”
“You’d think [we’d] be scared as hell,” he said. “We all had family. But during that time, we had a job to do.”
The pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Joseph Rosamond, landed the bird, stirring up so much dust in the already smoky area that they could hardly see.
“The LZ was apocalyptic,” Esquivel explained. The fire was frighteningly close. “You could definitely feel the heat. Absolutely nothing is surviving that fire.” Sparks and embers were everywhere. They breathed in the ash. “I was just like, let’s go get these people.”
Esquivel spotted people near the beach and ran over to assess the situation. Some emerged from the lake where they were sheltering from the fire. Many were injured. Winds had moved the fire fast, so people had to run to stay ahead of it. Several people broke bones from tripping or running into things. Some were burned, having had to run through smaller fires ahead of them in order to escape the inferno behind.
One woman endured terrible burns. “I’m so sorry,” Esquivel told her. “The movements we’re going to do to get you out of here will hurt. But we will get you out.” He moved her onto a blanket. “Everybody grab a corner. Let’s go.” She screamed as they loaded her on an ATV and drove her to the Chinook.
Women, children, and the injured were rescued first. “Small children were tough,” Esquivel confessed. Chinooks are loud. Esquivel fitted a baby with the last spare hearing protection headset.
Chinook regulations allow 30 people on the helicopter. On the first flight, Esquivel’s team evacuated 67.
Back at the base, medics cared for the civilians. The crew’s commander checked on his soldiers. They only wanted to rescue more.
Landing a second time, the situation was worse. Flames were 50 feet away. They packed the Chinook with an unthinkable 102 people. The bird was a little sluggish on that flight. “That one made me pucker,” Esquivel said. “But we made it. We knew the aircraft could handle it.”
People were excited to be saved. “Being American, they were taking pictures.” The photo flashes messed with the crew’s night vision goggles. Esquivel told people to stop using their phones.
The second group disembarked at the base. Esquivel’s wife texted, “I hope you’re not putting more people on that aircraft than it can handle.”
“How did you know?” he replied.
A rescued person’s photo was blowing up on Twitter before the bird had even landed.
A third flight evacuated 37 people. The Chinook’s crew, working with a Black Hawk helicopter, had rescued everyone.
“How were the people?” I asked.
“It was beautiful to see people helping other people no matter how old you were or rich you were,” Esquivel said. “Skin color didn’t matter. People were helping other people. We’re Americans, and we’re getting out safely.”
It had been a long day for the heroic National Guardsmen. At the end, they smelled pretty bad, coughing up soot. “That whole day was a huge blur. We woke up [the next] morning, and everything was normal.”
The news of the rescue continued to spread.
Soon, Esquivel and his crew were notified that President Trump would be awarding each of them the Distinguished Flying Cross, one of the military’s highest decorations.
“What was that like?” I asked.
Esquivel sounded as amazed as I was. “I looked him dead in the eyes,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘This is the president of the United States right here.’ Very cool dude.” The president thanked each of them. Once, Trump put his hands on Esquivel’s shoulders. “Well,” the sergeant thought, “I’m not going to wash this uniform again.”
Esquivel has served on aircraft taking fire in Afghanistan and Iraq, but he said that none of those experiences hit as hard as this rescue. “You’re on your home soil, doing your job, saving people.”
I’ve written about amazing people, but I’ve never interviewed someone who’s been honored by the president for risking his life to help rescue hundreds. Yet Esquivel was completely modest.
“My wife has been with me through thick and thin,” he said. “The families need to be recognized.”
Above all, he attributed the rescue’s success to the courage and professionalism of his fellow National Guardsmen. “I’m just glad we had the crew we did.”
We’re all glad, Sgt. Esquivel. Thank God for all of you.
Trent Reedy served as a combat engineer in the Iowa National Guard from 1999 to 2005, including a tour of duty in Afghanistan.
