Story by Dhruv Gopinath.

Wherever U.S. service members may find themselves, Air Force rescue squadrons stand ready to rapidly mobilize, deploy and employ to provide combat and peacetime search and rescue in support of U.S. national security interests. In the Horn of Africa and the 449th Air Expeditionary Group’s area of responsibility, that task falls on members of the 303rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron and their HH-60W Jolly Green IIs.

“Our role in supporting airpower in East Africa includes providing a continuous 24/7 personnel recovery capability for all U.S. and allied air-assets,” says Capt. John Rudy, 303d ERQS director of operations. “If any emergency occurs, we can respond immediately to rescue those downed aircrew members.”

The geography and situation on the ground in the Horn of Africa create challenges that members of the 303d ERQS plan meticulously around to make sure they can complete their missions.

Photo: U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Justin Frawley, center right, is a special missions aviator assigned to the 303rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron in the Horn of Africa. (Photo by Tech. Sgt. Dhruv Gopinath).

“East Africa is massive, which creates time, distance, and fuel considerations which impact the mission and require quick coordination to ensure we have what we need to get to the survivor,” says Tech. Sgt. Justin Frawley, an HH-60W Special Mission Aviator with the 303d ERQS. “This forces us to be critical thinkers and come up with sound game plans on the fly.”

When the mission relies on saving lives, it’s critical for members of the 303rd ERQS to maintain not only a high level of readiness but to also be on the same page as their mission partners.

“We work hard to maintain a high level of proficiency with our aircraft and to keep up with current events in our area of responsibility,” says Frawley. “We integrate with multiple units from different services, so every situation we encounter is unique and must be solved differently in order to achieve mission success. Since we deal in lives, our mission cannot fail.”

Working in service of others is a key theme for members of the 303rd, something which is often a family tradition.

Photo: A U.S. Air Force HH-60W Jolly Green II assigned to the 303rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron sits on the flightline at an undisclosed location in the Horn of Africa, Sept. 4, 2023. (Courtesy photo, Tech. Sgt. Dhruv Gopinath)

“My family has been serving in the military since World War II,” says SrA Bryan Estes, an electrical and environmental journeyman assigned to the 303d ERQS. “To carry on that tradition, I chose this job and I felt this position would allow me to contribute the most toward the mission.”

For Estes, whose home station is Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, being deployed to East Africa has been an eye-opening experience and provided him with a different perspective on the job he performs.

“Out here, there is a heightened sense of purpose because we directly witness the impact of our work we’re a much smaller group of maintenance personnel, so every career field gets to see and learn first-hand how everyone else works,” says Estes. “Seeing the results of what we do first-hand is one of the most rewarding things I have ever experienced in my career.”

The 303rd has been kept busy, not only working with joint forces but with local partners as well.

Photo: U.S. Air Force Capt. John Rudy, 303rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron director of operations, pilots an HH-60W Jolly Green II over the Horn of Africa, Sept. 5, 2023. (Courtesy photo by Tech. Sgt. Dhruv Gopinath)

“Along with maintaining our personnel recovery alert, our primary task here has been casualty evacuation for local forces in their fight against violent extremist organizations,” says Rudy. “Our ability to launch immediately following the report of injuries and capability to land directly at the point of injury with our highly-skilled pararescue brethren gives our partner force members the best chances of survival after sustaining life-threatening injuries.”

No matter how far from home the members of the 303d ERQS may find themselves, their unique mission and the close bonds they share make the deployment experience incredibly memorable.

“We get to fly, shoot guns and save lives with our best friends,” says Frawley. “Out here I’m a part of the best community the DOD has to offer!”

*********

This story by Tech. Sgt. Dhruv Gopinath of the 406th Air Expeditionary Wing was first published on September 8, 2023, by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. Image derived from CIA map and photos courtesy of DVIDS (photos by Tech. Sgt. Dhruv Gopinath, Sep 2023).

By Lt. Col. Ian Phillips, 920th Rescue Wing.

After two years of assessment and validation the 920th Rescue Wing has developed an enhanced Personnel Recovery Task Force (PRTF) structure along with overhauled tactics, techniques, and procedures with a specific design to deny competitors exploitation of isolated personnel.

The structure distributes forces in light, medium, and heavy configurations that are able to maneuver and sustain organically throughout all operating environments. In lockstep with the Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment applications, the new PRTF structure utilizes multi-capable Airmen from across the wing to provide both offensive and defensive capabilities during personnel recovery, contingency location establishment, and intra-theater airlift operations.

Historically personnel recovery has been piecemeal sourced with right-sized solutions due to traditional force structure models, which does not always present the right forces for the tasking.

“More than 40 years of doing Air Force rescue the same way offers combatant commanders no tactical advantage over competitors. The PRTF is an idea whose time has come. It is powerful, agile, and presents stand-alone personnel recovery, kinetic agile combat employment, and kinetic intra-theater airlift options in contested maritime and jungle environments,” said Col. John Dobbin, 920th Rescue Wing commander.

The new design incorporates force distribution in three configurations based on operational requirements. PRTF-Light is composed of two HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters, one HC-130J Combat King II aircraft, and two Guardian Angel (GA) teams. The PRTF-Medium will contain four HH-60Gs, two HC-130Js, and four GA teams. The PRTF-Heavy will have eight HH-60Gs plus backup aircraft, five HC-130Js plus backup aircraft, and eight GA teams.

Force projection of the PRTF is by a small, cross-trained team of wing maintenance and mission sustainment specialists that deploy to provide self-sustainment and autonomous operation and support. This ACE element enables organic tactical communications, security, logistics, and aircraft maintenance with a mindset that anticipates the needs of operations rather than reacts to them.

The PRTF relies on strategic airlift for delivery into theater but ongoing tests pursue an autonomous PRTF force projection through transport of HH-60G/W helicopters inside the wing’s HC-130Js. Until such time, the wing garners efficiencies in their multicapable Airmen applications which reduce the strategic air requirements to move into a theater of operations from previous years.

The wing refined the new structure through its annual wing training plan. Their HORIZON series of exercises are conducted at the squadron, group, and wing levels throughout the year involving deployment scenarios that culminate in the annual FURY HORIZON and DISTANT HORIZON exercises that take place around the world. This has validated the tactics, techniques, and procedures as a successful way to perform combat rescue.

“Our focus is on the Indo-Pacific region which offers incredible opportunity and challenge for our wing’s special warfare Airmen and special purpose aircraft. This region necessitates our new PRTF-Heavy capability to conduct a multilateral rescue assault on a defended point of incident. A point of incident that may be more than 300 isolated Airmen at an initial or temporary contingency location, isolated and dispersed elements, or individuals of the Air Force and joint warfighters as well as mass casualties at sea,” said Dobbin.

The PRTF -light, -medium, and -heavy structure aligns wing resources to the Air Force Chief of Staff’s lead wing framework and is sustainable across the total force when risk-based priorities determine what combatant command request for forces are highest priority. The PRTF self-solves resource allocation and balance challenges due to its scalable application, internal command and control, and using low-technology capabilities to counter high-end technology adversaries.

“It is scalable and flexible to give more options to a combatant commander for broad spectrum personnel recovery,” said Lt. Col. John Lowe, 920th RQW Fusion Cell chief.

This year the wing deployed the PRTF-Medium to an Indo-Pacific exercise where the wing tested Joint All-Domain Command and Control, which integrated the wing with joint and international partners to execute deliberate and immediate combat rescue missions.

The 920th RQW is a combined arms team of special mission personnel and aircraft whose mission is to plan, lead, and conduct military rescue operations and missions to deny competitors and adversaries exploitation of isolated personnel.

**********

This story by Lt. Col. Ian Phillips was first published by the 920th Rescue Wing Public Affairs office on April 14, 2022. Posted by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. DVIDS content is in the public domain.

Photo: CH-47F Chinook from Task Force Brawler participates in Personnel Recovery exercise with USAF Guardian Angel team at Bagram AF. (Photo by USAF Tech. Sgt. Gregory Brook, 27 Feb 2018).

Angel Thunder 18 is a personnel recovery event that is held twice a year (May and November) in the United States southwest. The Combat Search and Rescue exercise is staged out of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.

Personnel from the Army, Marines, Navy, and Air Force participate in this bi-annual event. In addition, other countries provide military participants as well. This fall’s Angel Thunder 18 exercise features military units from Canada, France, Italy, and Poland. Each iteration of the exercise sees countries from all parts of the world participating.

In the past the Angel Thunder exercise was held once a year – usually in the spring. Typically, the U.S. Army Special Forces sent one or two SF teams to take part in the PR exercise – many times to conduct Non-Conventional Assisted Recovery (NAR) training. Now that the event is held twice a year it is a smaller exercise. The Angel Thunder 18 will use range sites across Arizona as well as in some neighboring states. First held in 2016 the Angel Thunder exercise is advertised as the world’s biggest joint-service, multinational, interagency combat search and rescue exercise.

The exercise typically involves a large number of aircraft of all types and a few thousand personnel. Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is home to several combat rescue units and the A-10 Thunderbolt II close air support aircraft. The A-10 is frequently used during CSAR missions.

The training scenarios simulate deployment conditions and contingencies allowing the personnel recovery forces to train through a large spectrum of PR capabilities. A wide variety of units and agencies participate – including special forces elements and government agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Agency and Department of State.

Read more in “Angel Thunder: Augmenting CSAR Readiness via Evolution”, DVIDS, November 6, 2017.

References:

Angel Thunder – USAF
www.dm.af.mil/About-Us/Library/Angel-Thunder/

The National Counterterrorism Center has issued a “Status Report on the Implementation of Executive Order 13698 Hostage Recovery Activities”, September 30, 2016. The White House executive order enhanced efforts across the federal government and directed a 12-month Status Report to ensure that the reforms were properly implemented.

The status report was prepared by the National Counterterrorism Center and was done in consultation with other government agencies such as the Department of State, Defense, Justice, and the FBI. If you have an interest in personnel recovery then the 12-page report is a good read.