JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska (NEWSnet/AP) — Santa’s helicopter flight to an Alaska Native village overlapped with medical flight duties to another village Wednesday, courtesy of the Alaska National Guard.

The original schedule called for an Alaska Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter to fly Santa, Mrs. Claus, volunteer elves and gifts in shifts Wednesday to the village of Tuluksak. The mission: Christmas cheer for the local children. The flights originated from Bethel, about 35 miles southwest, the guard said in a release.

But after the first trip to Tuluksak to drop off the first visitors, the helicopter crew got an urgent call seeking help for a medical evacuation in the village of Napaskiak, located about 5 miles south of Bethel, across the Kuskokwim River.

The river can be used an ice road during the winter.

But there is normally only enough ice this time of the year to prevent boats from operating. The ice wasn’t thick enough to support vehicles, and bad weather prevented civilian medical aircraft from landing at the village air strip.

Helicopter pilots Colton Bell and David Berg, both chief warrant officers, rearranged their flight plans, adding two paramedics and medical equipment amid the remaining gifts.

They flew the five minutes to Napaskiak and dropped off the paramedics, who said they would need about 40 minutes to stabilize the patient. That gave the pilots time to take the 15-minute flight to Tuluksak to drop off the gifts and volunteers.

They then returned to Napaskiak to pick up the patient and paramedics and flew them to an awaiting ambulance in Bethel. The patient was in stable condition upon that effort Thursday and awaiting transport to an Anchorage hospital.

“This mission specifically showcases our abilities to adapt to multiple, rapidly changing missions while operating in adverse weather while still completing them efficiently and safely,” Bell said in a statement.

The Alaska National Guard for decades has delivered gifts, supplies and sometimes Christmas itself to tiny rural communities in their state. The outreach began in 1956 when residents of St. Mary’s village had to choose between buying gifts for children or food to make it through winter after flooding, followed by drought, wiped out hunting and fishing opportunities that year.

Since then, the Guard arranges for Christmas gift deliveries at two or three villages a year.

Copyright 2023 NEWSnet and The Associated Press. All rights reserved.