Edward F. Hladovcak ferried wounded soldiers in the China-Burma-India Theater during World War II and took part in the first helicopter combat rescue in aviation history. Hladovcak and three wounded passengers crashed in the Burmese jungle one hundred miles behind Japanese lines. An experimental YR-4 helicopter, flown by Lt. Carter Harman, took two days (April 25-26, 1944) to transport Hladovcak and the three to safety.

After the war Hladovcak ran a flying service, called “Sandhills Airways,” at Neligh and Gordon, Nebraska. In the 1960s he worked as a flight trainer instructor for the U.S. Air Force and as a helicopter test pilot.

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