Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service

The Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service (RAFMRS) provides the UK military only all weather search and rescue asset for the United Kingdom. Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Teams (MRTs) were first organised during World War II to rescue aircrew from the large number of aircraft crashes due to poor visibility then occurring on high ground. The practice at the time was to organise ad-hoc rescue parties from station medical sections and other ground personnel.

Experience demonstrated that this could be dangerous. While the mountains of the United Kingdom are not very tall, they contain much formerly glaciated terrain with steep cliffs, talus slopes, high peaks and cirque basins, and generally experience a sub-Arctic climate at relatively low altitudes. Snow and high winds, sometimes in excess of 100 mph (161 km/h), are possible any month of the year. Rescue operations in these conditions require personnel with specialised mountaineering training and equipment.

The Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Teams are credited with some of the earliest development of mountain rescue techniques and teams in the United Kingdom and overseas. RAFMRS teams continue to contribute to life-saving and mountain safety. Since the closure of military Search and Rescue (Helicopter) RAFMRS has moved from 2 Group to the newly formed 38 Group in 2015 with direct oversight by 85 Expeditionary Logistics Wing.

RAF policy from the very early days of 1918 was for the station medical officer to attend all aircraft crashes as, initially at least, the low air speeds meant that many crashes were survivable and first aid would be given before the crews were moved either into Station Sick Quarters or a hospital. A single RAF medical officer, Flight Lieutenant George Desmond Graham (also known as "Doc" Graham), is credited with pressurising the Air Ministry into forming the RAF Mountain Rescue Service (MRS). Graham was one of several RAF medical doctors who organized teams at RAF Llandwrog in North Wales in 1943, at RAF Millom (southern Lake District), and at Harpur Hill (Peak District), where Flt Lt (later Air Commodore) David Crichton performed a similar role. Graham's team rescued dozens of allied airmen from Snowdonia before Graham was posted to Burma, where he took part in an early para-rescue operation (strikingly similar to one generally credited as the beginning of United States Air Force Pararescue), saving the life of a Royal Canadian Air Force navigator, Flying Officer W Prosser.

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