Members of the California ANG’s 129th Rescue Wing, Moffett Field, are back at home after undertaking a dangerous three-day rescue effort, some 1,000 miles from the northern California coast. An MC-130 flew out to sea to intercept a Liberian tanker that had sent out a distress call. Three pararescuemen jumped from the airplane, landed in the ocean with medical gear, and boarded the vessel. Two days later, a 129th RQW HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter came to pick up the rescuers and their patients—one with two broken arms and one suffering from hypothermia after jumping overboard.
All 12 American bombers deployed in Britain rapidly returned to the U.S. on Oct. 4 following security concerns about a potential Iranian threat to their base in the U.K.