Air Force officials are transitioning their combat search and rescue motto to an over-arching name that encompasses all rescue assets under the same umbrella mindset with a more current operational focus.
Personnel recovery fulfills a promise to never leave an American behind and the new slogan comprises not only combat search and rescue operations but also civil search and rescue and shuttle recovery support.
An Air Force decision in September 2008 to adopt personnel recovery as one of its 12 core functions signifies that these activities are now viewed on the same level with other core Air Force functions such as nuclear deterrence, air/space/cyberspace superiority, agile combat support and rapid global mobility, among others.
This core function can also include noncombatant evacuations, humanitarian assistance/relief operations, medical/casualty evacuations and rescue command and control.
"The Air Force is the only service who possesses weapon systems and career fields that are solely dedicated to recovering isolated personnel," said Col. Darryle Grimes, the 347th Rescue Group commander. "It's essential to develop a global (personnel recovery) capacity that will help achieve national security objectives."
Even today, Air Force rescue forces are often seen as only being focused on preparing to rescue and recover high-risk personnel such as aircrew or special operations personnel in combat situations.
"In reality, the vast majority of people that we have recovered since 9/11 have not been those types of trained personnel," Colonel Grimes said. "They have been casualty evacuation or medical evacuation missions for both our United States servicemembers and friendly coalition forces, civilians and even the enemy in some instances. Right now, the demand for combat search and rescue is not in particularly high. Combat search and rescue is just one of many operational capabilities that we possess. We are more able to utilize our full range of abilities if we realize that and if joint force commanders realize that. The nature of war has changed in the many years since our rescue forces first had their beginning.
Despite the change in terminology, training for different missions has not changed.
"The way we train is still geared toward (combat search and rescue) because it is demanding and challenging," Colonel Grimes said. "When we train at such a high level, we are ready to support other operations and incidents at all levels of intensity. We need to retain all the necessary skill sets to conduct rescue across the full spectrum of military activities."
Under personnel recovery, rescue assets are constantly training and prepared to respond to any variety of situations that may present themselves.
"What we provide at Moody Air Force Base and the 23rd Wing is support for the operational capabilities within this new core function," said Col. Gary Henderson, the 23rd Wing commander. "On a day-to-day basis, it's not a huge change at Moody. We'll continue to organize, train and equip to do what we do best, provide joint world-wide rescue capabilities. We recognize that we have these capabilities, we expect to be tasked and we're ready to support missions globally. Although we rarely have an opportunity to rescue an Airman, we stand ready."
Brigitte Brantley
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