In March 2024, heavily armed gangs laid violent siege in the Haitian Capital of Port-au-Prince trapping thousands of Americans and other civilians. Thousands of violent gang members terrorized the country compelling a partial evacuation of the U.S. Embassy and the need for mass evacuations of civilians stuck in the middle of insurgency. As the gangs operated throughout the country, DYNAMO used helicopters, small planes, cars, and even boats to conduct dangerous rescue missions amongst the violence.
Responding to the rapid surge in violence, Project DYNAMO immediately deployed its operations team to Haiti, initiating Operation: RUM RUNNER. The mission of RUM RUNNER was the rescue of Americans cut off from the city in austere locations as well as Americans trapped within the gang-controlled zones of Port-au-Prince. On March 19, 2024, amidst the escalating violence, our team executed a daring air rescue extracting two American missionaries from the farthest points in Haiti where seemingly they were without hope of evacuation.
This mission, was one of many, larger-scale even more dangerous operations that were conducted via airplane, helicopter, boat, and land to rescue Americans.
Drawing from our war-zone expertise and our generous donor resources, the team launched a series of dangerous and complex helicopter air rescues from hasty landing zones, deep in the gang infested hostile districts resulting in over 50 Americans plucked from danger. The operation used carefully selected extraction points, unmarked landing zones like school soccer fields, brave pilots flying multiple helicopters, and of course our Special Operations veteran ops team, to safely evacuate men, women, children, babies, the elderly, medically compromised, and even a few pets who had been stranded in the violence with no hope or options. The ops team and helicopters were engaged by the gangs on multiple occasions, however, the team’s resolve in completing the mission was unwavering. DYNAMO is proud to now hold the record of passengers in a UH-60 Blackhawk. On one operation alone, the team squeezed 31 Americans plus flight crew onto one aircraft under fire.
