United States Air Force Pararescue

United States Air Force Pararescue

Pararescuemen (AFSC 1T2X1) are United States Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) and Air Combat Command (ACC) operatives tasked with recovery and medical treatment of personnel in humanitarian and combat environments. Also known as "PJs" (Pararescue Jumpers), these special operations units are also used to support NASA missions and have been used to recover astronauts after water landings. They are attached to other SOF teams from all branches to conduct other operations as appropriate. Of the 22 enlisted Air Force Cross recipients, 12 are Pararescuemen. They wear the maroon beret as a symbol of their elite status, and to symbolize the blood shed by past PJs, as well as the blood current PJs are willing to shed to save lives. Part of the little-known Air Force Special Tactics community and long an enlisted preserve, the Pararescue service began commissioning Combat Rescue Officers early in the 21st century.

Read more about United States Air Force Pararescue:  Pararescue Training and Structure, Notable Pararescuemen, Movies, Current Units, Former Unit

Famous quotes containing the words united states, united, states, air and/or force:

    “A sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruction of our political system as would provide for the permanent liberty and happiness of the United States.”
    —James Madison (1751–1836)

    “There was no speculation so promising, or at the same time so praisworthy, as the United Metropolitan Improved Hot Muffin and Crumpet Baking and Punctual Delivery Company.”
    —Charles Dickens (1812–1870)

    “I would like to be the first ambassador to the United States from the United States.”
    —Barbara Mikulski (b. 1936)

    “Having grown up in shade of Church and State
    Breathing the air of drawing-rooms and scent ...”
    —Philip Larkin (1922–1986)

    “When the excessively shy force themselves to be forward, they are frequently surprisingly unsubtle and overdirect and even rude: they have entered an extreme region beyond their normal personality, an area of social crime where gradations don’t count; unavailable to them are the instincts and taboos that booming extroverts, who know the territory of self-advancement far better, can rely on.”
    —Nicholson Baker (b. 1957)