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Rescue wing sends replacement contingent to Afghanistan

  • Published
  • By Capt. Cathleen Snow
  • 920th Rescue Wing
Approximately 70 Air Force reservists from the 920th Rescue Wing here deployed to Afghanistan Aug. 25 to provide rescue services for personnel deployed for Operation Enduring Freedom.

Rescue wing helicopter aircrews, maintenance and support personnel are replacing a similar number of reservists from the wing and its sister unit, the 943rd Rescue Group, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., deployed there since February .

Prior to deploying, the rescue Airmen spent 10 days in the southern Arizona desert training for the toughest flying conditions in the world . 

Afghanistan is notorious for craggy terrain, impromptu dust storms, no cultural lighting , steep valleys and the Hindu Kush mountain range, which soar 25,000 feet above sea level. Summer temperatures in Afghanistan routinely run as high as 120 degrees. 

Rescue reservists have saved 185 people, assisted 120 others and performed 124 escort missions since deploying to Afghanistan in February.  They recalled amny 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.