It was all in a night's work for the New Mexico National Guard Aviation Unit, which late last Saturday rescued an active-duty soldier who had fallen an estimated 200 feet down a cliff while climbing in the Franklin Mountains near El Paso.

The five-member crew of a New Mexico National Guard UH-60A helicopter pulled the soldier from a canyon and flew him to nearby William Beaumont Army Medical Center's emergency room at Fort Bliss.

The soldier, 19, was not identified. He sustained serious injuries, including broken ribs, a crushed sternum and abdominal bleeding but was expected to recover, New Mexico National Guard officials said.

Soldiers from the Florida Army National Guard also assisted in the treatment of the injured soldier and established the aerial evacuation of the injured soldier. Also helping with the rescue were the El Paso Fire Department and the El Paso County Search and Rescue Unit.

For their efforts, the five New Mexico Guardsmen — Sgt. Ron Benavidez, Staff Sgt. Ryan Haworth, Sgt. Brian Bowling, Lt. Col. John Fishburn and Capt. Dan Purcell — received the New Mexico Medal of Valor Thursday morning in a ceremony at the New Mexico National Guard Aviation Unit's facility in Santa Fe.

Maj. Gen. Kenny Montoya, the head of the New Mexico National Guard, made the presentation in the helicopter hangar, thanking the Guardsmen for their "selfless service" in making "a life-saving rescue that exemplified the warrior ethos."

The New Mexico Medal of Valor "is a big deal," said Tom Koch, National Guard spokesman. "Those medals are not given out freely. It's a medal of distinction. We're really proud of these guys."

Koch said a New Mexico Medal of Valor had not been awarded for the last nine years.

As a result of the "courageous effort from the crew, the soldier was saved and immediately taken" to the hospital for treatment, a statement from the National Guard's Office of Public Affairs added.

In an interview after the ceremony, Haworth recalled the rescue, explaining the injured soldier had fallen about 50 feet and then rolled another 100 feet or so. The Florida unit transported him 1,200 feet in a litter before becoming stuck at a cliff estimated to be between 50 and 100 feet high.

A call then went out to the New Mexico National Guard Aviation Unit, which often assists in exercises at Fort Bliss. "We got the call at 7:30 p.m." last Saturday, Haworth said, "and all five us got up here (to Santa Fe from as far away as Rio Rancho) as fast as we could."

By 9 p.m., operating under night-vision goggles, the unit was airborne and headed for the Franklin Mountains, reaching the area where the solider was injured at about 11 p.m., Haworth said.

The most difficult part of the rescue, perhaps, was the need for the helicopter to descend into the canyon, with only 10 to 20 feet between the rotors of the chopper and two vertical ridges, the mission report said.

That wasn't the only problem. As the injured soldier was being lifted toward the hovering helicopter, a line stabilizing the litter he was on got caught on a rock and broke.

"The litter started spinning," Benavidez said. "I thought (the injured soldier) was going to fall out."

But the Guardsmen were able to secure the litter, and the helicopter whisked the injured solider to the hospital in just a few minutes. By then it was midnight.

The last thing they heard about the soldier was that he was out of the intensive care unit and getting better, Haworth said. "He was an active-duty soldier originally from the Albuquerque area."

"Despite the dangerous conditions ... the mission proved successful," Fishburn said in the mission report. "It was the result of the coordinated efforts of many rescuers who came together to save the life of a young American soldier."

Contact Bob Quick at 986-3011 or bobquick@sfnewmexican.com.