ONW’s para-rescue troops get a taste of the real thing with downed pilot
By Terry Boyd, Turkey
bureau
Staff Sgt. Michael Morford /
Special to Stars and Stripes
Capt. Richard Shebib, a 510th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron F-16 pilot, flies a
combat search-and-rescue mission as part of Operation Northern Watch. |
IZMIR, Turkey — Going down is no way to start the day. But the
American F-16CJ pilot assigned to Operation Northern Watch who went down July 18 outside
Batman, in southeast Turkey, may have been flying under a lucky star.
Not only did Capt. Michael A. Nelson Jr., bail out over friendly
territory, he bailed out while ONW reservist para-rescue airmen prepared for an exercise
later that week.
What could have been a disaster turned into a routine test for a
complex search-and-rescue plan designed to bring downed pilots and crews flying
U.N.-mandated no-fly missions over Iraq back to Incirlik Air Base.
“Not to downplay it,” said Lt. Col. Mark Beaty, but once
rescuers found Nelson uninjured, their attention turned to tweaking their system and just
enjoying the extra flying time. Beaty piloted the lead rescue helicopter — part of
the 305th Rescue Squadron from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.
Fourteen people including the pilots, engineers, window gunners and
three para-rescue soldiers on each craft, flew two HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters to pick up
Nelson.
“We were upbeat about being able to go out and bring someone
back,” Beaty said. “But it wasn’t as sporting as it could have been.”
“Sporting” to para-rescue guys means a combat mission into
enemy territory. Para-rescue troops have the skills to fight their way to the injured,
then to treat downed fliers, said Lt. Col. Bob Dunn, commander of the 939th Expeditionary
Rescue Squadron.
Operating out of helicopters, para-rescuers take care of survivors
“with what they’re carrying on their backs,” said Dunn, who also flew on
the mission.
Dunn said that Nelson’s Mayday set into motion a complicated
sequence of events. During their six-week deployment, the reservist crews and their
helicopters are based about 300 miles east of Incirlik and about 50 miles from the Iraqi
border. The 305th is one of five units making up the 939th Rescue Wing. The other units
are the 39th and 301st rescue squadrons from Patrick Air Force Base, Fla., and the 303rd
and 304th rescue squadrons from Oregon.
At the forward position, rescue crews were on duty mid-morning when
they heard the fateful intelligence reports, Dunn said.
“The mechanical problems turned out to be engine problems,”
with the pilot working to find an empty area to put down the single-seat fighter, Dunn
said.
As the search-and-rescue teams assembled for a briefing, word came
from Incirlik that the pilot had ejected safely. His wingman was flying overhead, feeding
information to mission commander Col. John Burgess at Incirlik.
Burgess, as combined forces air component commander, gave the go
ahead for the rescue helicopters to launch, and an HC-130 left Incirlik for the forward
base.
“From the time we were called till we were overhead was probably
about 30 minutes,” Dunn said. During the flight from the crash site back to the
forward base, para-rescue personnel checked out the pilot “to make sure he was
feeling as good as he said he was,” then turned him over to a HC-130 crew, who flew
the pilot back to Incirlik. Doctors at Incirlik’s hospital checked out Nelson by
about 1 p.m.
While it may not have been “sporting,” the incident gave
search and rescue crews the first chance to perform since 1994, when rescuers flew into
Iraq to get a downed British Harrier crew. Coincidentally, they, too, were from the 305th.
Flying a real mission, rather than an exercise, “you find out
little things you can do better. Maybe even as simple as how you stashed your gear,”
Dunn said.
Besides, Beaty added, a rescue “is the only way you’ll get
a F-16 pilot to ride in helicopter.”
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