On Oct. 2, 2015, STAR Flight received two international 2015 Higgins & Langley Memorial awards that honor outstanding achievement in the technical rescue discipline of swift-water and flood rescue. They received the awards as part of the annual International Association of Water Rescue Professionals conference in South Bend, Ind.
STAR Flight program director and Texas Task Force 1 – Water and Helicopter Rescue Manager Casey Ping received the Higgins & Langley Memorial and Education Fund 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Award presenters stated in their announcement: “Casey Ping has been a true pioneer in the technical rescue discipline of swift-water and flood rescue since the early 1990s. Under Casey’s leadership, Travis County STAR Flight has become one of the premier helicopter-based, swift-water rescue teams in the United States. Casey has dedicated countless hours, serving as a subject matter expert on local, state and national committees, striving to improve flood and hurricane disaster preparedness, and to develop state-of-the-art swift-water and flood rescue training protocols and mission-specific equipment. Swift-water rescue operations are among the most dangerous missions for rescue personnel and victims alike, due to the power of moving water and the difficulty of rescuing victims who may be free-floating, stuck in a tree, or on top of a vehicle being swept downstream. As a swift-water rescue team member, Casey has performed countless rescues of victims who owe him and his teammates their very lives.”
In addition, STAR Flight crew members senior pilot Craig Hilzendager, senior flight paramedic Stephen Maier and senior registered nurse Howard Polden received the Swift-Water Rescue Incident Award. This award honors STAR Flight’s April 27, 2015, rescue of three victims from a dangerously flooded dam near Lake Mexia where their boat was entrapped. According to award presenters, “Only through training, practice and experience could this team have succeeded in pulling these victims from the river.”
