PATRICK SPACE FORCE BASE, Fla. -- The 39th Rescue Squadron flew an HC-130J Combat King II aircraft to MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, where they conducted a nighttime training mission April 24.
The 39th RQS operates HC-130J aircraft, the Air Force's dedicated fixed-wing personnel recovery platform. The squadron provides rapidly deployable expeditionary recovery forces to theater commanders for contingency and crisis response operations worldwide, specializing in the rescue of isolated personnel from austere, denied environments.
Often tasked for airdrop, airland, helicopter air-to-air refueling and forward-area ground refueling missions, the HC-130's mission capabilities also include humanitarian aid operations, disaster response, security cooperation/aviation advisory, emergency aeromedical evacuation and noncombatant evacuation operations.