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Florida rescue unit spins up for high-altitude war

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jonathan Simmons
  • 920th Rescue Wing
PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  There are many ways to die in war and not all of them involve bullets.

Airmen from Air Force Reserve Command's 301st Rescue Squadron here trained Nov. 9-17 at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., for the high-altitude rigors and hazards of Southwest Asia before they deploy for their 2007 Air Expeditionary Force participation.

Most of the day-to-day rescue operations for the squadron and its 920th Rescue Wing are at low altitude and involve coastal flying conditions. This is in stark contrast to the, dry, thin air and mountainous locations in which 920th RQW crews will be flying and fighting this AEF cycle. Crews will have to keep their eyes peeled for both windy gusts and rocket-propelled grenades.

"Where we're going is very different than Florida," said Lt. Col. Chris Hannon, 301st RQS commander. "At home, the aircraft are like sports cars, but over there they're more like Mack trucks."

Crewmembers learned just how much this difference means as the spin-up training kicked off with a full day of pain-staking power requirement calculations, weight and balance negotiations and mission planning.

"Out there, during the actual mission, we'll be on a razor's edge of the aircraft's abilities," said Colonel Hannon. "There'll be a guy out there who will die if we don't do the mission, so we plan hard to make sure we (are able to) do the mission."

This aircrew-centered training is the first of two off-site training sessions leading up to the AEF. Aircrew, maintenance and support Air Force specialty codes from the 920th Rescue Wing were involved, and the wing's geographically separated 943rd Rescue Group provided facilities and logistics support at D-M.

The second training will be mission-centered, wargame-like and will be staged in early 2007 after the aircraft operators are acclimated to the hostility of the new flying environment.

"Small mistakes can be catastrophic," said Col. Philip Manning, 920th RQW vice commander. "This is where we work out those small mistakes."

On Day Two the crews were off the ground. They set out to pursue mistake-free flying as they began a rigorous schedule of daytime flights.

During the flights' landing zones and precision hovering, the reservists passed instructions, calculations and site evaluations over the communication system. In a wartime setting, this communication would play a vital part in keeping crews alive.

Four days into the training, the crews switched to night flying. Night flying can be tricky, and in the windy mountains of a cold desert it can be a matter of life and death for people stranded on the ground and for the Airmen who set out to save them.

"You can't just turn the lights on like in a car," said Capt. John Tatton 301st RQS pilot. "Because then people shoot at you."

Crews use night vision equipment to navigate through mountains that, in the dark, seem to blend into each other and into the sky.

"One hour of flying with NVGs (night-vision goggles) is like three and ¾ hours of day flying," said Captain Tatton. "You get fatigued after a while so we have to log night hours to make sure we are always ready to handle that stress."

From now until deployment day, the reservists of the 920th Rescue Wing train hard to fly and fight safely that others may live.

Or, as Master Sgt. Glenn Roberts, 301st flight engineer, puts it: "We sweat hard in training to bleed less in war." (AFRC News Service)