Rescue Wing folds its wings for Afghanistan

  • Published
  • By Capt. Cathleen Snow
  • 920th Rescue Wing
PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Air Force Reservists from the 920th Rescue Wing here will mobilize to Afghanistan August 24-25 after Tropical Storm Fay delayed last week's departure.

Approximately 70 rescue wing helicopter aircrews, maintenance and support personnel are more than ready for their mobilization to Southwest Asia after the recent Florida storm prevented airlift from coming in or going out of Patrick. 

The Airmen will mobilize for up to seven months and are replacing approximately the same amount of Wing Airmen who have been in Afghanistan since February.

These reservists, mostly from Brevard County, live and work throughout Central Florida and beyond. While supporting Operation Enduring Freedom they will leave behind their families and civilian jobs to provide rescue services to personnel in the theater of war.

They will deploy with two of the wing's HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters which have been folded up for transport aboard an Air Force cargo plane. 

The Air Force Reservists can expect to be busy as they will be jetting their choppers over the craggy Central-Asian nation to save lives by medically-evacuating the injured out of potentially-hostile areas.

These same Wing Airmen recently returned from 10 days of training in the southern Arizona desert where they prepared for the toughest flying conditions in the world - Afghanistan. Not only is the country notorious for craggy terrain, but its known for impromptu dust storms, no cultural lighting and some of the highest mountains and steepest valleys.

Reports from Wing Airmen already in Afghanistan revealed many harrowing flights where they saved injured Soldiers, international forces and Afghanis. There were also atypical missions, like a recent mission where they rushed snake venom to save a little Afghani girl's life. Or the mission when they evacuated a military working dog that was sprayed with shrapnel from a roadside bomb.

Rescue wing Airmen from here--and from the wing's sister unit based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.-- have saved 185 people and counting since deploying to Afghanistan earlier this year in February as part of an overall 14-month mobilization.

A 'save' refers to a situation where, without immediate medical evacuation, a person would lose their life, a limb or eyesight (LLE). In addition, wing Airmen have also recorded 120 assists--evacuations where LLE were not in immediate danger and 124 escort missions.

The country, which is slightly smaller than Texas, routinely records temperatures of more than 120 degrees and is home to the Hindu Kush mountain range, which soars to more than 25,000 feet above sea level.