Posted on 10/29/2012 8:54:34 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan — The Afghan boy lay naked and trembling beneath a woolen blanket in the dimly lit helicopter cabin, bleeding from a gunshot wound. The smell of fuel and dirt hung in the air as the deafening sound of the engine and rotors churned around him.
His father crouched nearby, watching with curiosity and fear as three pararescuemen worked methodically to save his son’s life. Though warlike in appearance, their calm, gentle demeanor reassured the father.
As the helicopter tore through the night sky on its way to the military hospital at Camp Bastion in Helmand province, a second one flew in tandem. Two helicopters, four pilots, four gunners and six pararescuemen all with a single mission: Save the boy.
They did.
When an Air Force combat rescue team lifts off from Camp Bastion in a pair of HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters, they become a flying paradox: A lethal war machine full of highly trained combatants whose mission is to save lives rather than destroy them. Heavily armed and fully armored, the helicopters carry the Guardian Angels, a team of warfighters often more like archangels.
“We’re all meat eaters. We have sharp teeth,” Combat Rescue Officer and Pararescueman Capt. Brock Roden said.
“The first thing I’m thinking about is shooting back. I’ve got my weapon raised. But it’s all geared toward going in there and picking the guy up,” he said. “You’ve got to have that aggressive mentality.”
Their call sign “Pedro,” which refers to the pilots and crew, was resurrected from Vietnam for the mission in Afghanistan. The pararescuemen, who are trained to work from any land, air or sea vessel, are nicknamed PJs.
While their core function is combat rescue and the personnel recovery of downed aircraft, Air Force pararescue teams also fly throughout Afghanistan augmenting the Army medevac mission.
Though medevac and pararescue overlap in terms of pulling the wounded from the battlefield, they are distinctively different. While medevac adheres to the Geneva Conventions by flying in unarmed helicopters marked with red crosses, pararescue flies in unmarked birds equipped with two .50 caliber machine guns. And they carry the guardian angels.
“We are a weapons system, we are armed,” Senior Airman and Pararescueman Jason Sweet said. “We’re shooters, divers, jumpers, technical rescue specialists. We’re ready to rescue anyone, anywhere, anytime.”
While the inception of Air Force combat rescue began in 1947, its legacy has been forged in every conflict since Korea.
The helicopters fly in pairs, one designated as the trail aircraft, and one as lead. Each is capable of landing in the hot zone or providing covering fire from above.
“They all work as one flying unit. It’s a continuous conversation between the lead and trail aircraft.” Roden said.
“When trail goes in to do the pickup and they have enemy fire, they know they have the bird overhead that they’ve trained with. They know the tactics; they know the specific patterns they’re going to fly. They know they’re going to keep that gun on them,” Roden said. “Those guys overhead are going to make damn sure they come out of there.”
Pave Hawk helicopters are modified with special protection, communication and navigation systems along with weather radar. The combined technology allows them to fly in any condition. They also have in-flight refueling capability, giving them the ability to fly longer-range missions.
Pilot and Air Expeditionary Group Commander Col. Damon Reynolds hasn’t found the scenario the Pedros wouldn’t fly into to rescue the wounded.
According to Reynolds, Air Force combat rescue upholds a covenant that U.S. armed forces have with the American people.
“I am the guy who must get up and train my babies everyday to be as lethal, nasty and mean and ugly as they have to,” within the Rules of Engagement, Reynolds said. “We made a deal with your momma and daddy, and your wife and family, that if they send you over, we will do everything we can to get you back.”
The pipeline
PJs undergo some of the most rigorous training in the armed services. The 9-week initial selection process is nicknamed the “Superman” course, and their two-year training program, known as the pipeline, has an 85 percent washout rate.
By graduation, each PJ is trained extensively in advanced parachuting, weapons and tactical maneuvering, combat diving, survival skills, ropes and mountaineering, extrications, battlefield trauma and more.
“There’s something completely different about the few guys who complete the training compared to the hoard of people who started,” Staff Sgt. and Pararescueman Corey Largo said.
“It’s an unquestioning faith in each other and a desire to bring people home, and to do some crazy [expletive] to make that happen.”
“PJs are a wild bunch of dudes,” he said. “We care for each other, very deeply. And we care for other people.”
Most agree that the mix is what drew them to the job.
“God made me a very aggressive person, but he gave me a very compassionate side as well,” Sweet said.
Into the war
War stories have always been about near misses, and the Pedros and PJs have their share of them.
Recently, insurgents attacked the lead helicopter as it covered their trail aircraft while pulling the wounded from a hot landing zone.
As Pedro gunners returned fire, a bullet tore through the cabin, passing just inches between Parescuemen Staff Sgt. Chris Bowerfind and Master Sgt. Matt Schrader. That single round, whose trajectory was hell bent on causing mayhem, then struck the tail rotor control cable, nearly severing it.
If the cable were broken, the pilots would have lost control of the rear rotor.
“I don’t think we would have crashed, but we would have had to do a hard landing,” Roden said later. “We were taking heavy fire; they were definitely trying to shoot us down.”
“It’s all business,” said Schrader, a former Force Recon Marine whose nickname is Papa Bear, about the attack.
“All I can think about is my guys. If I get hit, that’s one thing, but if one of my guys gets hit, that’s horrible,” Schrader said. “We all signed up for it, we all know. But I’m responsible for the guys.”
For Bowerfind, the firefight was emblematic of the pararescue paradox.
“If I have to take a life, I will,” he said. Yet his resolve is tempered by compassion and experience.
“Knowing that there is no glamour in killing somebody or seeing one of your friends get hurt or killed really helps you to focus more on what you need to do to save a life,” said Bowerfind, who served as a Joint Terminal Attack Controller for an Army Special Forces team before becoming a PJ.
Battling ‘the reaper’
While saving lives is what they do, they don’t always win, and sometimes the loss stays with them.
During the height of the fighting season last summer, a pararescue team came under fire as they pulled two Marines severely wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack.
One Marine was covered in shrapnel wounds, the other gravely wounded and without vital signs. As the PJs worked to push the life back into his bloody and torn body, his buddy lay nearby, crying for him and calling for the Marines they left behind.
Not long after they landed at the hospital at Camp Bastion, three PJs gathered outside the emergency entrance. As they turned to leave, a British soldier wheeled a gurney quietly behind them. It was draped with an American flag.
In a few hours, somewhere in the states, a young wife with a newborn son would learn her husband died in a war that they -- and many other soldiers and Marines -- fear too few care about.
“I don’t want to forget them because I think that’s part of honoring them,” Pararescueman and Senior Airman Caleb Kiley said.
Every loss is tough, but this one was a little tougher. Kiley couldn’t stop thinking about the Marine who made it.
“The guy was completely riddled with shrapnel, all up and down his back and legs. But he was not concerned about his injuries; he was worried about his buddy. And that’s something I think most people don’t understand,” he said.
“Seeing that kind of made me angry because you go on the news and they’re talking about some celebrity, and you’ll never see these kids get mentioned. If people don’t have someone they know over here, it is almost like what happens doesn’t exist.”
The Pedros and the PJs don’t like to lose, and they look to cheat death every chance they get. When Bowerfind flies, he has a message for “the reaper.“
“When we’re coming in, I look down there and I say, ‘Not today, that guy’s mine, I’m taking him, not you. This guy’s going home, he belongs to us.’”
Unless they send you to Libya.
We had a group waiting to go at Aviano. I dunno why they were never sent.
They were never sent because somebody issued an order for them to stand down.
I hope nobody takes my post as criticism of the troops that didn’t show up. I have no doubt they are even more angry about being forced to abandon fellow Americans than I am.
First....I’m former AF (SAC aircraft commander) and the son of a career SAC MSgt. Still bleed blue. AF Academy grad, etc.
That said....let me first say that I’ve had the utmost respect and admiration for SEALs, Delta, Special Forces (aka Green Berets), et al my entire life. An amazing collection of serious men with serious training who do superhuman things around the world.
The PJ’s are relatively unknown to most civilians, and they’re every bit the equals of SEALs. Their training is nothing short of brutal. They are amazing physical specimens, to a man. Incredible abilities.....yet, as the article points out so well, their primary purpose is to save lives rather than take them (but by God, get in their way as a bad guy as they’re on a mission and yer ass is going straight to Hell).
It’s not as sexy as the SEALs’ well-deserved “get in, get it done, get out without being seen or heard” image of Ultimate Warriors who will take on all comers in the night, granted. Still....I put these guys on the top pedestal of the upper tier of America’s Elite.
God bless ‘em....God bless ‘em all. High time they get proper recognition for what they do.
Ping
What are we doing there? What is the goal? If there is no objective, then we are just getting our guys killed for nothing. Somebody had better decide exactly what winning is in Afghanistan.
I read a book about them many years ago and they are indeed the equals if not more of the SEALS. They go through the same training program as the SEALS and Green Berets while also getting medical training. They must do much of their training while carrying a heavy mannequin to simulate extracting wounded. They practice medical procedures like catheterization ON EACH OTHER! They are trained to be dropped into hot spots where Special Ops personnel are wounded and fight their way out. There were several stories of PJs being dropped onto snowy mountains or the Grand Canyon, in some cases to rescue civilian air crash victims, and were FORGOTTEN! They had to survive their way out with the victims. At the time the book was written, probably 25 years ago, there were only 300 PJs. Making them the most elite force in the U.S. Those guys ROCK!
There is no plan to win there. On this, I agree with Obama. Obama has no plan, so get us out of there.
Agreed and enough said except that these guys are involved in the escape and evasion schools. Pilots say they never want to meet them again but if they have to they will be saved or these guys will die trying. So far as I know, they never buy a drink when pilots are around.
Their training is brutal. Many are guys who grew up in the woods hunting and fishing from as soon as they could walk. They are smart and would be at the top of any class they choose. They are formidable in every way. They are little known but probably the best in multiple skills in the same package that we have. One-on-one I doubt many or any could match them.
We used to have a lot more people in this country that hated losing but not like these guys hate losing.
Now we seem to have mostly losers in this country.
This is Obozo's war. He couldn't wait to get more troops in there. He likes to play CIC but has no clue & also has no problem giving Rules Of Engagement to make sure they don't win.
Agree with Him? He's not pulling them out to save them...He wants the glory to brag about ending the Iraq war, along with this one.
He's a cheap trick scumbag who belongs in jail.
Onhis first trip, they had to pick up dead pilot & live pilot hiding in the rocks. Ended up getting pinned down there for 6 hours, pavehawk had to leave them there with the local villagers looking to make their acquaintance; pretty spooky getting hunted down I'd think. Anyway, there was a write up in AF times Bagram a couple years back. I posted site back then on here.
Anyway, nothing but respect for those PJs. Ya know, my nephew brought up a Scar 308 last Spring for bear, I liked it so much I got one this fall. And to think I've been carrying that AR-10 around moose hunting, the Scar is a featherlight.
Kudos to the PJs, they are the best.
I just moved back up here.
obozo never had any intention of winning the Afcrapistan war against his mohammaden brothers. He has ended that war and iraq by surrendering. When he was annointed he didn’t meet with his general for 6 mos. Then when told that 80,000 troops were needed to avoid failure he sent 30,000. His ROEs have tied our guys’ hands behind their backs leaving them sitting ducks and casualties have skyrocketed.
Are you in Anch? We live up on the Yukon, near the border. You might know my Nephew, Bill. They send him to schools all the time all over the place. Those PJs are well trained beyond belief. Nephew is super blown out, into body building, strong as an ox. I thought he was going to take off running with that moose hind over his shoulder ha ha. Back in 1970, my number was 31, had me going to Ft Dix on 2nd of January, ha ha; and they never sent me to any schools, ha.
No. Eielson.
The Nephew spends about a week a month up in Fairbanks, mostly in Anch; they keep them busy flying all over Alaska. Heck I’m just glad I got a relative in Alaska now.
Ouch! Well you must have been lucky in love!
AMEN
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