The Air Force’s elite pararescue jumpers deployed to Southwest Asia don’t just sit around waiting for the next rescue operation, they constantly practice their craft. “We always train, train, and then train some more,” says SSgt. Jon McKenzie with the 64th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron at Balad AB, Iraq. He told journalist SSgt. Carlos Diaz: “You can never train enough. You accomplish on mission rehearsal after another and work as a team to get the job done.” That team includes the pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer, and gunner who man the HH-60G Pave Hawk combat search and rescue helicopter that routinely transport PJs to their destinations. And, McKenzie doesn’t leave out the ground crew, who, he says, “bust their tails day in and day out ensuring these aircraft are mission ready.”
The Air Force is on track to reach its annual goal of graduating 1,500 new pilots that had proved elusive to this point, one year after the service launched a sweeping overhaul of its undergraduate pilot training program, Air Education and Training Command said Sept. 14.
