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Pararescue

USAF Pararescue
United States Air Force Pararescue Emblem.svg
United States Air Force Pararescue
Active March 1946 – present
Country  United States of America
Branch  United States Air Force
Type Special operations force
Role Combat Search and Rescue
Direct Action
Light Infantry
Combat Medicine
Part of ACC Shield.svg Air Combat Command (as Guardian Angel Weapon System)
Shield of the United States Air Force Special Operations Command.svgAir Force Special Operations Command
United States Special Operations Command Insignia.svgUnited States Special Operations Command
AFR Shield.svgAir Force Reserve Command
US-AirNationalGuard-2007Emblem.svgAir National Guard (operationally gained by a MAJCOM when federalized)
Nickname(s) "PJs", "Maroon Berets", "Rescue Rangers"
Motto(s) "These Things We Do, That Others May Live"
Insignia
Maroon beret with Pararescue Flash USAF Pararescue Beret.jpg

Pararescuemen (also known as PJs) are United States Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) and Air Combat Command (ACC) operators tasked with recovery and medical treatment of personnel in humanitarian and combat environments. These special operations units are also used to support NASA missions and have been used to recover astronauts after water landings. They are attached to other SOF teams from all branches to conduct other operations as appropriate. Of the roughly 200 Air Force Cross recipients, only 24 are enlisted rank, of which 12 are Pararescuemen. Part of the little-known Air Force Special Operations community and long an enlisted preserve, the Pararescue service expanded to include Combat Rescue Officers early in the 21st century.

As early as 1922 there was a recognized need for trained personnel to go to remote sites to rescue airmen. In that year, Army Medical Corps doctor Colonel Albert E. Truby predicted that "airplane ambulances" would be used to take medical personnel to crashes and to return victims to medical facilities for treatment. However, it was another two decades before technology and necessity helped to create what would eventually become Air Force Pararescue.

Even so, there were developments in critical technologies. In 1940, two United States Forest Service Smokejumpers, Earl Cooley and Rufus Robinson, showed that parachutists could be placed very accurately onto the ground using the newly invented 'steerable parachute.' These parachutes and the techniques smokejumpers used with them were completely different from the techniques used by Army airborne units. It was in that year that Dr. (Captain) Leo P. Martin was trained by the U.S. Forest Service Smokejumper Parachute Training Center in Seeley Lake, Montana as the first 'para-doctor'.


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Wikipedia

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