MOODY AIR FORCE BASE — Personnel from Moody Air Force Base recently carried out the Air Force’s first lifesaving mission with its newest rescue helicopter.

Last month, the 41st and 38th rescue squadrons at Moody put the HH-60W “Jolly Green II” helicopter into use transferring a patient from South Georgia Medical Center to Moffitt Magnolia Center in Tampa, Fla., according to a statement from the base.

The Moffitt facility’s website describes it as a cancer center.

At 4:23 p.m., Sept. 7, SGMC reached out to Moody for help with the patient transfer. Two available helicopters had just returned from a four-hour training sortie and needed fuel and a maintenance look-over, according to the statement.

One of the helicopters was refueled in four minutes; Moody had Air Force Rescue 490 airborne 43 minutes after receiving the hospital call.

The chopper landed on a soccer field between SGMC and the Valdosta State University softball diamond on North Ashley Street. The patient was brought to the helicopter by ambulance and was soon in the air.

Capt. John “Jack Sparrow” O’Neill, the aircraft commander, said they were dodging bad weather the whole way to Tampa but made it there safely. Air Force Rescue 490 landed at a soccer field in Tampa at 7:14 p.m.

They were met by a Moffitt Magnolia Center ambulance. The patient was moved to the ambulance and taken to Moffitt Magnolia Center. Air Force Rescue 490 departed Tampa at 9 p.m. and returned to Moody Air Force Base.

The Air Force Rescue Coordination Center credited the 41st and 38th Rescue Squadron with one save.

Moody received its first HH-60Ws in November 2019 and Congress budgeted $12.5 million earlier this year to build a new apron at the base to service the machines.