Rescue Airmen enhance wartime readiness skills

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Leslie Forshaw
  • 920th Rescue Wing Public Affairs
PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE, Fla --  Rescue Airmen from the 920th Rescue Wing here continue their training for a wartime skills inspection in November.

The 920th RQW routinely trains and ensures unit readiness by participating in periodic exercises, evaluations and inspections. The exercise, called a Combined Unit Inspection - Phase II, will test the skills and preparedness of Rescue Reservists during scenarios that mimic what they may find while deployed in a combat environment.

One CUI is behind the Rescue Team and two more are ahead before their deployment readiness is tested with an official grade by an inspection team during the final phase of the Inspection slated for April 2013.

"Our purpose is to make sure our people know how to protect themselves in a deployed environment," said Tech. Sgt. Kimberly West, Emergency Management Specialist and instructor here. "We're just going over procedures here to make sure we're all on the same page."

Everyone is motivated, asking questions and ready to go, said West.

The Ability to Survive and Operate (ATSO) training is essential during this preparation time, said Senior Airman Brenna Young, Emergency Management Journeyman.

"We make sure that the Airmen here know how to properly use the contamination control areas during the inspection," said Young. "This is a big part of the inspection because it's the area where you can get safely out of a contaminated suit and into new gear."

"Patience is important during this time and confidence in your wingmen that they are doing their job while you're doing yours," said Young.

We all depend on each other during war and it reflects during the inspection time, said Young.

Rescue Airmen participate in exercises to prepare them for whatever mission they may be tasked with, no matter where it might be. They train in quality environments and maintain the highest levels of proficiency and readiness.

Within the past year and a half, Rescue Wing Airmen have deployed overseas to Afghanistan, Germany and most recently to the Horn of Africa providing both humanitarian relief and combat rescue medical evacuations. Since its establishment in 1956, the 920th RQW Airmen have saved more than 3,000 lives.

Rescue Airmen are the only members of the DoD specifically organized, trained and equipped to conduct personnel recovery operations in hostile or denied areas as a primary mission.

The wing's primary wartime job is combat search and rescue, which involves locating and rescuing service members isolated or injured in combat - such as combatants injured on the battlefield or pilots shot down behind enemy lines.