United States Air Force Pararescue

USAF Pararescue
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	Air Combat Command (as Guardian Angel Weapon System) Air Force Special Operations Command United States Special Operations Command Air Force Reserve Command Air 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"
Color of Beret	Maroon
Insignia
Maroon beret with Pararescue Flash

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'.