Air Force reservists in Oregon helped rescuers find two men who disappeared while hunting for wild mushrooms, according to a release. The men got separated from a fellow mushroom hunter at 1 p.m. on Oct. 25, when they were trying to leave the remote wilderness area because of severe weather. The 304th Rescue Squadron sent a 10-person Guardian Angel search and rescue team to join the search on Oct. 26. Volunteers found the men, who were suffering from hypothermia, and the airmen provided medical treatment before helping them walk out of the wilderness. “When you are looking for someone in remote mountainous areas, you don’t know where they are going to end up. They could have fallen off a cliff into a ravine, and those situations can be very difficult,” said Maj. Chris Bernard, a spokesman for the 304th RS. The Guardian Angels—pararescuemen, combat rescue officers, and search evasion resistance escape professionals—are trained rescue specialists who have expertise in navigating rough terrain, Bernard said.
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…