Pararescuemen and combat rescue officers from Air Force Reserve Command’s 920th Rescue Wing at Patrick AFB, Fla., joined with active duty rescue personnel in a challenging, two-week training course designed to hone their high-altitude, high-angle, and confined-space rescue techniques. An unused, 300-foot-tall Titan rocket assembly building at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., served as the training venue. The massive facility allowed them to practice climbing high or rappelling far down to rescue mock survivors and victims by utilizing their ropes and riggings. “This course and our knowledge of ropes give us the credibility to be able to come in and do the rescue in a timely, safe fashion,” said Capt. James Sluder, a combat rescue officer with the wing. “Keeping everything as simple as possible is our goal here,” noted TSgt. Adrian Durham, 920th RQW pararescueman. (Cape Canaveral report by SSgt. Leslie Kraushaar)
More than 20 tankers lined the runway at McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., on March 27, for an “elephant walk” and the base’s largest mass launch of aircraft ever. Sixteen KC-46s and five KC-135s participated in the flush, with aircraft and Airmen from the 22nd Air Refueling Wing and the 931st…