920th Rescue Wing

The 920th Rescue Wing (920 RQW) is part of the Air Reserve Component (ARC) of the United States Air Force, assigned to the Tenth Air Force (10 AF) of the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC).

The 920 RQW is home stationed at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida with additional Geographically Separated Units (GSUs) at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona and Portland International Airport/Air Reserve Station, Oregon. If mobilized, the 920 RQW is gained by the Air Combat Command (ACC).

Overview
Headquartered at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, the 920th Rescue Wing is the Air Force Reserve Command's premier combat search and rescue (CSAR) unit. The wing consists of over 1,500 Airmen, trained and equipped to locate and recover U.S. Armed Forces personnel during both peacetime and wartime military operations. Additional missions include providing rescue support for NASA Space Shuttle missions, providing search and rescue support for civilians who are lost or in distress and lending support in humanitarian and disaster relief operations with the wing's HH-60G Pave Hawk and HC-130P/N Hercules aircraft.

In addition to its aircraft squadrons in Florida and Arizona, the wing also has three additional squadrons in Florida, Arizona and Oregon consisting of Combat Rescue Officers (CROs) and enlisted Pararescuemen, the latter known as PJs. While many CROs and PJs enter the 920 RQW from the active duty Air Force, others are accessed directly into the Air Force Reserve. CRO and PJ Candidates must pass a physical assessment test which has about 15% success rate. An average of eighty people enter the 2-year training program each year.

Units

 * 920th Operations Group (920 OG)
 * 39th Rescue Squadron (39 RQS) HC-130N/P
 * 301st Rescue Squadron (301 RQS) HH-60
 * 308th Rescue Squadron (308 RQS) CRO/PJ
 * 920th Operations Support Squadron (920 OSS)


 * 943rd Rescue Group (943 RQG) (GSU at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona)
 * 304th Rescue Squadron (304 RQS) (GSU at Portland International Airport/Air Reserve Station, Oregon) CRO/PJ
 * 305th Rescue Squadron (305 RQS) HH-60
 * 306th Rescue Squadron (306 RQS) CRO/PJ


 * 920th Maintenance Group (920 MXG)


 * 920th Mission Support Group (920 MSG)


 * 920th Aeromedical Staging Squadron (920 AMDSS)

Operations
NASA Manned Space Flight Support: Project Mercury (1961–1963), Project Gemini (1965–1966), Project Apollo (1968–1972), Project Skylab (1973–1974), Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (1975), Space Transportation System (Space Shuttle) (1981–2011)

Operations Desert Shield / Desert Storm (1990–1991), Hurricane Andrew Relief Operations (1992), Operation Northern Watch (1992–2001), Operation Southern Watch (1992–2001), Operation Enduring Freedom (2001–Present), Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003–2010), Hurricane Katrina Relief Operations (2005), Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa (2005–present)

History
The 920th Rescue Wing (RQW) traces its history and lineage to two distinct organizations within the Air Force Reserve.

Following the mobilizations in 1961 and 1962 for the Berlin Crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis, Continental Air Command (ConAC) realized that it was unwieldy to mobilize an entire wing unless absolutely necessary. Their original Table of Organization for each Wing was a wing headquarters, a Troop Carrier Group, an Air Base Group, a Maintenance and Supply Group, and a Medical Group. In 1957, the troop carrier group and maintenance and supply groups were inactivated, with their squadrons reassigned directly to the wing headquarters - despite the fact that many wings had squadrons spread out over several bases due to the Detached Squadron Concept dispersing Air Force Reserve units over centers of population.

To resolve this, in late 1962 and early 1963, ConAC reorganized the structure of its reserve Troop Carrier Wings by establishing fully deployable Troop Carrier Groups and inserting them into the chain of command between the Wing and its squadrons at every base that held a ConAC troop carrier squadron. At each base, the group was composed of a material squadron, a troop carrier squadron, a tactical hospital or dispensary, and a combat support squadron. Each troop carrier wing consisted of 3 or 4 of these groups. By doing so, ConAC could facilitate the mobilization of either aircraft and aircrews alone, aircraft and minimum support personnel (one troop carrier group), or the entire troop carrier wing. This also gave ConAC the flexibility to expand each Wing by attaching additional squadrons, if necessary from other Reserve wings to the deployable groups for deployments.

As a result, the 920th Troop Carrier Group was established with a mission to organize, recruit and train Air Force Reserve personnel in the tactical airlift of airborne forces, their equipment and supplies and delivery of these forces and materials by airdrop, landing or cargo extraction systems. The group was equipped with C-123 Provider transports for Tactical Air Command airlift operations.

The 920th TCG was one of three groups assigned to the 455th TCW in 1963, the others being the 918th Troop Carrier Group at Dobbins Air Force Base, Georgia, and the 919th Troop Carrier Group at Memphis Municipal Airport, Tennessee.

The 920th in its previous pre-rescue mission iteration trained for and performed military airlift missions from 1963 to 1965 and 1973 to 1975, initially with C-123 Provider and later with C-130 Hercules aircraft as part of the 445th Military Airlift Wing and 459th Tactical Airlift Wing, both at Memphis ANGB and at its subsequent base of Keesler AFB, Mississippi. Later redesignated as the 920th Weather Reconnaissance Group, it then flew weather reconnaissance missions with WC-130 Hercules aircraft, including flying into hurricanes from 1976 to 1983 as part of the 403rd Rescue and Weather Reconnaissance Wing at Keesler.

Air Rescue
The second organization, which has an even longer history, serves as the basis for the wing's current mission. That unit, the 301st Rescue Squadron (301 RQS), was established on March 9, 1956 as the Air Force Reserve's first air rescue squadron. This original squadron, which still exists as an operational flying squadron within the current wing, was initially based in a military cantonement area at Miami International Airport prior to relocating to nearby Homestead Air Force Base in 1960.

The squadron's legacy includes the first Air Force Reserve rescue in January 1957; participating in NASA's manned space flight rescue contingency operations for Project Mercury, beginning with Freedom 7, the first manned Mercury launch in 1961; rescuing 137 South Florida residents during the 18-day humanitarian operation following Hurricane Andrew in August 1992; and on one day in March 1993, saving 93 elderly residents from rising flood waters at their Tampa area retirement community. The 920th routinely searches the Caribbean for downed aircraft and retrieves critically ill sailors from ships hundreds of miles out in the Atlantic.

Most recently, airmen of the 920th Rescue Wing, with aid from the U.S. Coast Guard, made a daring rescue of 28 British seamen from their sinking merchant vessel 270 miles off the east coast of Florida. In 2005, the wing's HC-130 and HH-60 flight crews recorded more than 1,000 lives saved during disaster operations along the Louisiana/Mississippi/Alabama Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The wing's flight crews fly in weather conditions which often test man and machine or at night using night-vision goggle (NVG) technology. The 920th completes arduous, over-water rescues which frequently require the unit's HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters to be mid-air refueled by their HC-130P Hercules aircraft — a capability not shared by the U.S. Coast Guard's HH-60J Jayhawk helicopters.

The wing is also fully integrated into the Air Force's Air and Space Expeditionary Force (AEF) construct and previously deployed to the former NAS Keflavik, Iceland on a routine basis in support of NATO operations, and to various locations in Southwest Asia (to include combat zones in Iraq and Djbouti) in support of Operation Desert Storm, Operation Southern Watch, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Originally constituted as the 301st Air Rescue Squadron on March 9, 1956, the organization was redesignated as the 301st Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron on January 18, 1966. It was renamed the 301st Air Rescue Squadron for a second time on April 1, 1990 and then redesignated as the 301st Rescue Squadron on February 1, 1992. In August 1992, the squadron evacuated all flyable aircraft assets from its then-home station of Homestead Air Force Base pending the landfall of Hurricane Andrew. Temporarily relocating to Patrick Air Force Base following the destruction of Homestead AFB, the unit permanently changed its home station to Patrick AFB in 1993 rather than returning to the redesignated Homestead Air Reserve Base.

Originally established as an amphibious aircraft unit with the venerable HU-16 Albatross, the 301st eventually became a combined fixed-wing and rotary-wing organization, operating both the HC-130 Hercules and HH-3E Jolly Green Giant helicopter until 1991, when the HH-3Es were replaced by the current HH-60G Pave Hawk. In 1997, five years after the unit's 1992 relocation to Patrick AFB, the HH-60G portion of the unit was retained as the 301st Rescue Squadron, while the HC-130P/N portion of the squadron was established as a separate unit designated as the 39th Rescue Squadron (39 RQS). Together, they formed the nucleus of the newly created 920th Rescue Group, subordinate to the Air Force Reserve's 939th Rescue Wing at Portland International Airport/Air Reserve Station, Oregon. In 2000, the 939th was redesignated as the 939th Air Refueling Wing and began to divest itself from the rescue mission and convert to KC-135R Stratotanker aircraft. As a result, in 2003 the 920th Rescue Group became the 920th Rescue Wing (920 RQW) and the parent unit for all combat search and rescue organizations in the Air Force Reserve Command.

In 2004, the 920 RQW's Regular Air Force gaining command was briefly reassigned from Air Combat Command (ACC) to Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). This was done as part of a USAF and DoD Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA) initiative to merge all USAF combat search and rescue assets (CSAR) and USAF special operations fixed-wing and rotary-wing airborne infiltration/exfiltration, helicopter air refueling, and combat search and rescue/recovery assets into a single command. This initiative was applied to all Total Force CSAR assets, i.e., Regular Air Force, Air Force Reserve Command and Air National Guard. However, command and control issues unique to the special operations community made it apparent that this was not a preferred arrangement, and in 2006, AFSOC divested itself of all CSAR assets, including the 920 RQW, returning overall operational control to ACC in the Continental United States (CONUS) and to Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) in the case of those CSAR units and assets in the Alaska Air National Guard.

In 2005, the wing provided extensive rescue and humanitarian support along the U.S. Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina, this less than 48 hours following the return of a significant portion of the wing's assets from an AEF deployment to Djibouti. Most recently (FY 2008), three of the 920th Rescue Wing's subordinate squadrons, the 301st Rescue Squadron (301 RQS), the 39th Rescue Squadron (39 RQS) and the 308th Rescue Squadron (308 RQS), led military units engaged in civilian rescue and relief for recent hurricane-related disasters in southeast Texas, Louisiana, and parts of Mississippi to include Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. Both Hurricanes Hannah and Ike wreaked havoc upon these states, with the 301 RQS providing support with HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters, the 39 RQS with HC-130P Hercules aircraft and the 308 RQS providing Pararescueman (PJ)/Guardian Angel support.

Lineage

 * Established as 920th Troop Carrier Group, Assault, and activated, on 15 Jan 1963
 * Organized in the Reserve on 11 Feb 1963
 * Discontinued, and inactivated, on 15 Dec 1965


 * Re-designated 920th Tactical Airlift Group on 2 Mar 1973
 * Activated in the Reserve on 25 Apr 1973
 * Re-designated: 920th Weather Reconnaissance Group on 1 Jan 1976
 * Inactivated on 1 Nov 1983


 * Re-designated 920th Rescue Group on 1 Apr 1997
 * Activated in the Reserve on 15 Apr 1997
 * Status changed from Group to Wing, on 1 Apr 2003
 * Re-designated 920th Rescue Wing on 1 Apr 2003

Assignments

 * Continental Air Command, 15 Jan 1963
 * 445th Troop Carrier (later, 445th Air Transport; 445th Military Airlift) Wing, 11 Feb 1963-15 Dec 1965
 * 459th Tactical Airlift Wing, 25 Apr 1973
 * Eastern Air Force Reserve Region, 1 Jan 1976
 * Western Air Force Reserve Region, 15 Feb 1976
 * Fourth Air Force, 1 Oct 1976
 * 403d Rescue and Weather Reconnaissance Wing, 1 Jan 1977
 * Fourth Air Force, 1 Jul 1981
 * 403d Rescue and Weather Reconnaissance Wing, 1 Mar-1 Nov 1983
 * Tenth Air Force, 15 Apr 1997
 * 939th Rescue Wing, 16 Apr 1997
 * Tenth Air Force, 1 Apr 2003–Present

Components

 * 920th Operations Group: 1 Apr 2003–Present
 * 943d Rescue Group: 12 Feb 2005–Present


 * 39th Rescue Squadron: 15 Apr 1997-1 Apr 2003
 * 301st Rescue Squadron: 15 Apr 1997-1 Apr 2003
 * 702d Troop Carrier Squadron: 11 Feb 1963-15 Dec 1965
 * 815th Tactical Airlift (later, 815th Weather Reconnaissance) Squadron: 25 Apr 1973-1 Nov 1983.


 * 34th Air Weather Flight: 1 Jan 1980-1 Nov 1983.

Stations

 * Memphis Muni Aprt, Tennessee, 11 Feb 1963-15 Dec 1965
 * Keesler AFB, Mississippi, 25 Apr 1973-1 Nov 1983
 * Homestead AFB, Florida, 9 Mar 1956 - 22 Aug 1992 (301st Rescue Squadron only)
 * Evacuated to Patrick AFB for Hurricane Andrew; combined HC-130P & HH-60G unit retained at Patrick AFB as future core element of 920 RQG
 * Patrick AFB, Florida, 15 Apr 1997–Present

Aircraft

 * C-123 Provider (1963–1965)
 * HU-16 Albatross (1956–1973)


 * UH-1N/HH-1N Twin Huey (1973–1979)
 * C-130 Hercules (1973–1977)
 * WC-130 Hercules (1976–1983)
 * HH-3E Jolly Green Giant (1974–1991)
 * HC-130P/N (1974–Present)
 * HH-60G Pave Hawk (1997–Present)