The United States Air Force Parachute Rescue Team (USAF Pararescue), also known as PJ (Pararescue Jumpers), is one of the United States Air Force's special forces units, specializing in humanitarian relief, and is part of the United States Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) and Air Combat Command (ACC).
On May 2, 2014, a Venezuelan fishing vessel caught fire in the Pacific Ocean 1,770 kilometers off the coast, trapping 11 Chinese crew members in a life raft, four of whom suffered severe burns. The U.S. Air Force parachute rescue team immediately dispatched two "Combat King 2" type rescue aircraft, three HH-60 "Pave Hawk" type helicopters, 48 people involved in the rescue.
Basic introduction Chinese name: U.S. Air Force Pararescue Foreign name: USAF ?Pararescue Slogan: Sacrifice yourself to save others That others may live Mission: Rescue Institutional responsibilities, history, film and television work, training methods, institutional responsibilities U.S. Air Force Pararescue (USAF Pararescue), also known as PJ ( Pararescue Jumpers). The USAF Pararescue Jumpers, also known as PJs (Pararescue Jumpers), are one of the United States Air Force's Special Forces units, specializing in humanitarian relief, and are part of the United States Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) and the Air Combat Command (ACC). They are also responsible for supporting NASA missions and rescuing astronauts after water landings. USAF Parachute Rescue Teams They primarily conduct missions with other Special Forces. Characterized by their date-red berets, they symbolize their professionalism, the sacrifices of those who came before them, and their willingness to sacrifice themselves to save others. In the early part of the 21st century, they have become responsible for battlefield rescue missions. The soldiers here live up to their motto: "That others may live" with fearless courage and quick reflexes. History Although Americans recognized the importance of air rescue as early as 1922, it was during World War II that parachute rescue teams made their way into history. At that time, the China-Burma-India theater of war, because of the military transportation mission, often need to aircraft in extremely harsh conditions across the Himalayas, to transport supplies to the Chinese territory. U.S. Army PBY "Catalina" seaplanes to rescue pilots overboard However, due to weather, mechanical and other reasons, many airplanes are difficult to reach the destination, the pilot had to parachute or forced to land in the middle of the urgent need for rescue. In this context, the U.S. Air Force began to organize paratroopers to carry out rescue. 1943 August, they successfully carried out the first rescue mission. Since then, the parachute rescue team composed of professionals began to grow. As early as in World War II, the U.S. military has generated the need for aerial search and rescue - especially in the vast and sparsely populated Pacific and China-Burma battlefields, downed crews without rescue basically a dead end. For this reason, the U.S. Army Air Corps and the Navy invested a great deal of manpower and resources. In the Pacific Theater, the survival rate of downed aircrews rose from 5% to 40% due to the activation of rescuers. In May 1946, the U.S. Airborne Search and Rescue Service (ARS) was established, specializing in air crash search and rescue operations. 1947, the Army Air Corps became independent of the U.S. Air Force, and the size of the Airborne Rescue Unit, to which the ARS belonged, also expanded rapidly. By 1950, airborne rescue personnel have been stationed around the world of the United States Air Force units. In the Korean War, helicopter-equipped airborne search and rescue teams were active on the battlefield, and by the time of the 1953 armistice, the Airborne Search and Rescue Service had evacuated more than 8,000 wounded and rescued more than 1,000 people from enemy territory. In November 1946, a C-53 transport plane carrying U.S. Army officers and their families crashed on a glacier in the Swiss Alps at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters while en route from Munich to Marseille. Although the entire crew survived, the steep mountainous terrain made it impossible for search and rescue crews to transport the injured out by land. In the end, Switzerland took the risk of landing the plane on the glacier and successfully rescued all the passengers. The Alpine search and rescue operation also became the beginning of modern air search and rescue operations. In 1950, the U.S. Air Force rescue of all kinds of specialized forces have been integrated. During the Korean War, they evacuated over 8,000 critically wounded and rescued nearly 1,000 soldiers from behind enemy lines. By the time the Vietnam War rolled around, parachute rescue crews were even more accomplished. Today, the mission of the parachute rescue team has greatly expanded. In addition to rescuing war wounded, they also undertake a wide range of search and rescue missions in accidents and disasters during peacetime. They even assist NASA in the search and rescue of astronauts returning to Earth. In 1964, U.S. military operations in Vietnam escalated and U.S. military planes began bombing North Vietnam. U.S. planes suffered heavy losses due to poor strategy and underestimation of North Vietnamese air defenses. A U.S. Air Force HH-43 helicopter lifts a wounded soldier from the battlefield in March 1966 during U.S. Army Operation Silver City. The guerrilla warfare environment in Vietnam differed from previous wars in that the shifty North Vietnamese forces often put SAR personnel themselves in danger. This prompted U.S. SAR personnel to maximize their own firepower for the aircraft, and the HH-53 Green Giant SAR helicopter was fitted with a machine gun on the tail skid, a solution invented by frontline soldiers and used to this day. In September 1966, north of Hanoi, a USAF F-105 fighter-bomber was shot down and the pilot parachuted out and was captured. The massive loss of the craft gave Airborne Rescue the best battlefield in Vietnam to put their skills to use. The Vietnam War greatly contributed to the escalation of U.S. Army search and rescue tactics, and by the middle and late stages of the war, U.S. Army search and rescue operations were usually conducted by large groups of aircraft in close coordination with multiple services. Parachute SAR team members who were required to go deep behind enemy lines were sometimes faced with the unfavorable situation of exchanging fire with or even being besieged by North Vietnamese forces, so U.S. Army SAR personnel were trained to be able to sustain operations in the mission area for up to 72 hours. Another important mission for USAF SAR units was astronaut rescue. In April 1966, the Gemini 8 spacecraft temporarily changed its splashdown zone from the Atlantic Ocean to the Okinawan waters of the western Pacific Ocean, which was beyond NASA's measurement and control capabilities. The 920th Aerospace Rescue Brigade of the U.S. Air Force, stationed there, was temporarily ordered to undertake the rescue mission, and successfully rescued Neil Armstrong and David Scott. In 1995, U.S. Air Force Capt. Scott O'Grady was shot down by Serbian forces while piloting an F-16 on a no-fly patrol mission in Boh, and after hiding for six days, O'Grady was successfully rescued by U.S. Army Search and Rescue forces. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the 101st Rescue Squadron of the U.S. Air Force was rescuing stranded residents from flood-ravaged urban areas. In 2010, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake paralyzed society in Haiti, which is located in the Caribbean, and the local *** was unable to maintain social order and requested U.S. assistance. The U.S. military quickly mobilized the three forces to intervene in the maintenance of order and post-disaster rescue, which parachute search and rescue team's professional rescue skills in action to play. Pictured are several parachute rescue personnel in the earthquake rubble trying to rescue survivors. December 2009, Afghanistan battlefield, in the evacuation to the field hospital aircraft, the U.S. Army's 66th Expeditionary Rescue Team of parachute search and rescue personnel are in the military operation for a wounded Afghan soldiers to carry out first aid. In June 2010, Parachute Search and Rescue Sgt. Michael Flores was killed in action during the mission. After his body was brought home, his comrade-in-arms, Sgt. Mike Maloney, paid tribute to his own comrades. The scarlet berets they wore on their heads were the iconic ornament of the Parachute Search and Rescue team, symbolizing the blood of generations of fallen comrades, whose sacrifices were inevitable as their missions always went deep behind enemy lines. In 2012, there was a case very similar to this rescue of Chinese fishermen. At that time, the same Chinese fishing boat was shipwrecked in the open sea 1,100 kilometers from the U.S. coast, and the U.S. Air Force deployed two C-130s and two HH-60s to rescue two burned fishermen. Due to the limited range of the helicopters, it is difficult to support the entire voyage, and the fixed-wing aircraft can not hover to shelter people in distress at sea/on shore, the U.S. Army's tactic is to be accompanied by the C-130 refueling for the HH-60, after arriving at the sea where the ship in distress is located by the HH-60 to shelter the wounded, and then rely on the C-130 refueling to ensure that the flight back to base. This tactic may seem extravagant, but for airborne SAR teams, it is only the most efficient standardized operating procedure in such situations. The C-130 and H-60 are excellent and reliable platforms for the U.S. Army's search and rescue teams to accomplish these feats. Relying on this "golden pair", the U.S. Air Force parachute search and rescue teams are often able to go thousands of kilometers away from their own bases to carry out tasks, which is beyond the reach of any other country. However, battlefield search and rescue is always the U.S. military airborne search and rescue team's job. On May 2, 2014, a Venezuelan fishing vessel caught fire in the Pacific Ocean, trapping 11 Chinese crew members in a life raft, four of whom suffered severe burns. After receiving the distress signal, the U.S. Air Force sent two HC-130J "Combat King 2" rescue aircraft, three HH-60G "Pave Hawk" helicopters, 48 people to participate in the rescue, the operation took nearly 11 hours, a total range of nearly 4,000 kilometers! The operation took nearly 11 hours and covered a total distance of nearly 4,000 kilometers, successfully rescuing the fishermen in distress. This action is a large-scale, the implementation of this search and rescue mission, is the United States Air Force parachute rescue team "Pararescue". On May 3, 2014, the 48th Rescue Squadron of the U.S. Air Force dispatched paratroopers who flew for nearly 11 hours and then parachuted into the area where the incident occurred. The operation*** involved two HC-130J Combat King specialized transport aircraft, three HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters, 10 Guardian Angels, and two other aircraft belonging to the 48th, 48th and 48th Rescue Squadrons. 10 members of the Guardian Angel Squadron and 38 members of the 48th, 79th and 55th Rescue Squadrons. Rescuers transferred the injured crew members to the helicopter. The U.S. Air Force later confirmed that four of the 11 Chinese crew members on the life raft had suffered burns and two of them had died as a result of their injuries. Seven Chinese crew members in good health have returned to China aboard another Chinese-flagged fishing vessel. Film and television works In 2013, National Geographic magazine had produced and broadcast a series of documentaries called "decoding war rescue" (Inside Combat Rescue), a true record of the parachute rescue team in Afghanistan in 2012 to carry out the mission scene. In five months, they **** carried out 130 missions and saved 108 lives. Training methods Parachute Search and Rescue Team is now under the command of the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command, the search and rescue team members are soldiers, paratroopers, military doctors, water rescuers, wilderness survival experts in a number of positions, there is no doubt that the field of battlefield rescue experts. To become a parachute search and rescue team members must also undergo rigorous screening training. The basic qualifications for joining a parachute search and rescue team include combat diving school, basic airborne, nationally certified paramedic, wilderness survival, and high-level free-fall parachuting, etc. After obtaining these qualifications, you will also need to undergo specialized parachute search and rescue professional intensive training. Pictured is a team of parachute search and rescue team recruits are being trained, the instructor with a cold water faucet to the recruits body spray, honing the willpower of the players. New recruits who have completed the aforementioned training are assigned to various search and rescue units, which will also conduct on-the-job training for new recruits according to their mission characteristics. The picture shows the U.S. Army search and rescue team soldiers learn to jump directly from the helicopter into the sea to rescue people at sea technology. According to statistics, the parachute rescue team training courses up to 71 weeks, after completing all the courses, an "all-round warrior" is born. After the end of the Cold War, the pressure of combat readiness has been reduced, the U.S. Air Force parachute search and rescue team also began to intervene in more humanitarian rescue operations. According to the U.S. Air Force website, parachute rescue team members endure some of the toughest training in the U.S. military, and they are on call 24 hours a day to respond to calls for help. In order to save others (regardless of nationality), they "sky into the sea," "flying wall" in no time, can jump into the enemy camps of the rain of bullets, with a key reliable medical qualities. It can be said that they are deservedly elite: the award of 22 U.S. Air Force Cross, there are 12 awarded to the parachute rescue team members.