USAF Pararescue and Scuba Diving

[John C. Ratliff]

Keep it coming John-- You are the MAN!! Here is a photo of my son. To this day, I'm not sure if he landed in the river, lake or desert. LOL!
#RescuePJ's! #ThatOthersMayLive!

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Trailboss,

It sounds like your son is in the 304th Rescue Squadron in Portland, Oregon. I was a member of that PJ group from 1972 to 1977. But I got out before we did any free-fall jumps. So all my jumps were static line while there, and usually from a helicopter. We started out with the HH-43 helicopter. In the photo below, PJ John Pierson and me are being picked up out of the Columbia River. John was simulating being a survivor, and had inflated LPUs on (Underarm Life Preservers). This photo is one you may have seen before, as it is a copy of one that was in the 304th Ops area.

When I was in the 304th ARRSq (as it was then called--Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron), we had two senior PJs named Mike Clooney and Dave Ward. On our medical evaluations, one would call himself "Luck" and one "Fate." They would go around looking at the medical problem, then say, "As Luck would have it..." or "As Fate would have it..." and modify our problem with disasters ("he's bleeding out from his leg" or "he just stopped breathing").

Getting away from the 304th RSQ, I was on the first trans-Pacific flight of helicopters with Master Sergeant Jerome C. Gorney. While we were in Alaska, he gave me some advise after pulling me away to talk. He said, "John, ATTENTION TO DETAIL, that's the key, whether it's a jump mission, diving or helicopter ops, attention to the details is extremely important. Get the details right, and the jump, dive, etc. will go right. If you neglect any detail, things get bad in a hurry." I've kept that information, and pass it along to all the divers, divemasters, tech divers, PJs and anyone else who could profit from it.

John

 

[Trailboss123]

Trailboss,

It sounds like your son is in the 304th Rescue Squadron in Portland, Oregon. I was a member of that PJ group from 1972 to 1977. But I got out before we did any free-fall jumps. So all my jumps were static line while there, and usually from a helicopter. We started out with the HH-43 helicopter. In the photo below, PJ John Pierson and me are being picked up out of the Columbia River. John was simulating being a survivor, and had inflated LPUs on (Underarm Life Preservers). This photo is one you may have seen before, as it is a copy of one that was in the 304th Ops area.

When I was in the 304th ARRSq (as it was then called--Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron), we had two senior PJs named Mike and Dave Ward. On our medical evaluations, one would call himself "Luck" and one "Fate." They would go around looking at the medical problem, then say, "As Luck would have it..." or "As Fate would have it..." and modify our problem with disasters ("he's bleeding out from his leg" or "he just stopped breathing").

Getting away from the 304th RSQ, I was on the first trans-Pacific flight of helicopters with Master Sergeant Jerome C. Gorney. While we were in Alaska, he gave me some advise after pulling me away to talk. He said, "John, ATTENTION TO DETAIL, that's the key, whether it's a jump mission, diving or helicopter ops, attention to the details is extremely important. Get the details right, and the jump, dive, etc. will go right. If you neglect any detail, things get bad in a hurry." I've kept that information, and pass it along to all the divers, divemasters, tech divers, PJs and anyone else who could profit from it.

John

You know what is funny? I am putting 2+2 together in my head and I think you and I met one Sunday morning a few years back while I was still living in Portland. I went over to the Tualitin Hills Aquatic Center one day to spend time in the pool and acclimate to some new dive gear and work on some skills. I believe you were there doing something similar-- maybe with your fins- doing some testing?

 

[John C. Ratliff]

You know what is funny? I am putting 2+2 together in my head and I think you and I met one Sunday morning a few years back while I was still living in Portland. I went over to the Tualitin Hills Aquatic Center one day to spend time in the pool and acclimate to some new dive gear and work on some skills. I believe you were there doing something similar-- maybe with your fins- doing some testing?

Yes, that would be me. I used the T-Hills pool quite a lot in the winter to test old gear (I'm pretty active in the vintage diving forum), and newer concepts in Underwater swimming. Here is one of my recent videos from that pool:


You will see the Original Swimaster Duck Feet ins in use. In the USAF, we were issued these kinds of fins, but each PJ chose the fin that was best for him. I also used Scubapro Lightning Jet Fins, and my own version of fin which I call the scoop fin. It has a fabric "scoop" rather than a blade, and was my original design. I think those are the fins (scoop fins) you see in the HH-34 helicopter photo above. For parascuba jumps, especially out of fixed wing aircraft (HU-16B and HC-130), we would tape the fins unto our feet with masking tape to keep the prop blast from pulling them off our feet during the jump. We used masking tape, not duct tape, so that it came off easily, and also used it to tape over out manifold guard (a steel guard over out double tank SCUBA) to keep parachute lines from tangling in our gear if our body positing was wacky and we tumbled through the risers.

We had one Apollo Sim-Ex (simulated exercise) witnessed but NASA where one PJ forgot his fins entirely, and had to do the exercise, complete with assembling and placing the floatations collar onto the mock capsule, sans fins. This was why our training incorporated a helleva lot of swimming! This is also where the "Attention to Detail" MSgt. Gorney told me about (see above entry) would have paid off, as he and the jumpmaster both missed that box (fins) in the pre-jump checklist.

SeaRat

 

[John C. Ratliff]

I promised to talk a bit about USAF Pararescue and scuba diving; here is what we did with parascuba jumping. I have three different looks at our parascuba configurations.

The first is of Little Joe Williams getting into an SA-16 Albatross flying boat in full parascuba gear, in the late 1950s. He is wearing twin 38 cubic foot cylinders, with a parachute on over that. Note the bulk of this gear on the PJ's back. The Mistral regulator is the one chosen, because it was cheaper and easy to repair. But it had a problem, as a double hose regulator it had vulnerable hoses in a parachute jump.*

The second, the black and white photo, is of Bill Pitsenbarger. It shows our PJ tanks, which were slimer than the twin 38s, and were actually converted 20-man life raft bottles. He is also using the original Calypso regulator, which the USAF PJs used because of the vulnerability of the double hose to being pulled apart in a parachute jump. This is Bill Pitsenbarger in parascuba gear. Note the Calypso regulator being used. We did not use gauges or a BC at that time. Note also the flexible snorkel in his knife, which had two Mk-13 day-night flares taped to it too. It was not approved by the U.S. Navy, but the Air Force looked at its advantages, and used it. Bill Pitsenbarger received the Medal of Honor, as described here, and is very well known in our ranks.


The third is part of a presentation I use to show parascuba, and shows both Rick "Bagman" Harder and myself in parascuba. I'll describe Rick later, but he is wearing the more modern integrated harness in the mid-1970s. All this is vintage equipment, but by this time we were using both the MR-12 regulator and the USD Calypso (third generation).

John

*Source: Pararescue, 50 Years, 1943-1993, A Commemorative History, Taylor Publishing Company, Dallas, Texas, Copyright 1996, The Pararescue Association, page 82.

 

[Trailboss123]

I promised to talk a bit about USAF Pararescue and scuba diving; here is what we did with parascuba jumping. I have three different looks at our parascuba configurations.

The first is of Little Joe Williams getting into an SA-16 Albatross flying boat in full parascuba gear, in the late 1950s. He is wearing twin 38 cubic foot cylinders, with a parachute on over that. Note the bulk of this gear on the PJ's back. The Mistral regulator is the one chosen, because it was cheaper and easy to repair. But it had a problem, as a double hose regulator it had vulnerable hoses in a parachute jump.

The second, the black and white photo, is of Bill Pitsenbarger. It shows our PJ tanks, which were slimer than the twin 38s, and were actually converted 20-man life raft bottles. He is also using the original Calypso regulator, which the USAF PJs used because of the vulnerability of the double hose to being pulled apart in a parachute jump. It was not approved by the U.S. Navy, but the Air Force looked at its advantages, and used it. Bill Pitsenbarger received the Medal of Honor, as described here, and is very well known in our ranks.

The third is part of a presentation I use to show parascuba, and shows both Rick "Bagman" Harder and myself in parascuba. I'll describe Rick later, but he is wearing the more modern integrated harness in the mid-1970s. All this is vintage equipment, but by this time we were using both the MR-12 regulator and the USD Calypso (third generation).

John

Awesome John! Thanks for posting!

 

[John C. Ratliff]

When I was stationed at Kunsan Air Force Base (AFB), Korea in 1969, we did a little experiment on protective equipment for diving. I was visiting my old friend, Terry Wetzel recently (see his photo below) with whom we shared this assignment in 1969, and e also talked about SSgt. John Carlson’s jump from an HH-43B Huskie helicopter into a reservoir in Korea in 1969, I believe. This is when SSgt. Carlson insisted that a survival suit over his flight suit would be enough to protect him from cold water. Well, we hovered over a local Korean reservoir in February of 1969, and he jumped out. We went around in a ten-minute circle than came back to pick him up. By the time we got there, he was thoroughly chilled, and on the verge of hypothermia (this happened in Korea in February). That made a believer in the use of wet suits rather than a survival suit with little insulation underneath.

But, for cold missions, USAF Pararescue went to the Unisuit dry suit in about 1970. From there they have used dry suits for their parascuba jumping in cold water, or for helicopter water ops.

When I was working with the 304th ARRSq, I enjoyed using the Scubapro three-window mask, as I wanted to see the periphery of my visual field. When working under a helicopter, there is an intense amount of rotor wash, and it is important not only to see in front of you, but to know what's happening around you. So I opted for that mask, and have been using it ever since (I now own three of them, plus a Dacor three-window mask).

SeaRat

 

[Akimbo]

@John C. Ratliff

I was thinking about this last night... and still glad I am learning about this on Scubaboard instead of first hand. Can you explain more about your mission profile? What dictates operating from a chopper versus a fixed wing? What distance to target can you expect to hit the water on a PR? What about medical assistance that can be administered? I'm "guessing" that PR is mostly used when the distance offshore is out of chopper range. How much and what kind of gear are they prepared to drop? Is the idea to wait for rescue by ship or sub? Do you train and prep for commercial airliners in the water... not that the chances of surviving the crash is very high.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Akimbo,

I will attempt to answer your questions, but actually a whole book could be written on them. First, below are all the aircraft I served on, along with two volumes of The Searcher, a publication on Air Rescue from the late 1960s. There is a lot of information there.

My first aircraft was the HU-16B Albatross, which I've already depicted above (I think) too. This one is on a water takeoff. The second is the HH-43B Huskie Local Base Rescue helicopter. Then the HC-130, which has amazing capabilities. I also worked on both the HH-3E Jolly Green helicopter, and it's successor, the HH-53C Super Jolly Green Giant. When I was in the USAF Reserves, we first got the HH-34, then the HH-1 Huey. Each had its own capabilities, and limitations (especially the HH-34). Lots of stories here too.

I'll work on more as I have time. Our mission was to penetrate into a scene where there were survivors, render medical aid, and evacuate those people. We did this for both our primary mission, which was military pilots in combat, and for civilians regardless of nationality. We also had a NASA mission to back up the U.S. Navy for each manned spacecraft launch, and had rescue forces posted world-wide for each manned mission.

SeaRat

 

[Birddog1911]

In my career, I spent 10 years as a C-130 Loadmaster. I was always glad when I knew PJs would put it all on the line to come and get me, if we got in trouble. If we find ourselves in the same area, beers are on me, @John C. Ratliff

 

[John C. Ratliff]

@John C. Ratliff

I was thinking about this last night... and still glad I am learning about this on Scubaboard instead of first hand. Can you explain more about your mission profile? What dictates operating from a chopper versus a fixed wing? What distance to target can you expect to hit the water on a PR? ...

Okay, here's a bit of information on these two questions. What dictates whether to use a chopper or a fixed wing aircraft? Well, at the time I was in the USAF, we were assigned different units with different birds to fly. Each unit had its own type of aircraft. So when I flew with the 33rd ARRSq in Okinawa, we were flying the HU-16B Albatross, and that was our ride. We did not have a helicopter assigned to this unit, although I did a TDY to Kadina, Okinawa to fly on the HH-43-B Huskie for Local Base Rescue for a few weeks. We had one mission to search of a lost helicopter by diving, and on that one we were ferried out from our base on Naha, Okinawa to an island by one of the HH-43 Huskies from Kadina. There's a lot more to that story, and I'll tell the tale a bit later.

When we were parascuba jumping, how close we landed depended upon two things, the expertise of the jumpmaster and our steering of the parachute. The procedure was to fly over the target of the jump (our target raft for training, or a boat, or the Apollo spacecraft after it had been stopped in the water), and drop a 60 minute flare. The jumpmaster would then line the aircraft up on final approach to a line created by the target and the flare, and fly toward both. As we flew over the flare, the jumpmaster would count up (1-one-thousand; 2-one-thousand...) until over the target, then count down. When he got to zero, he would push out a second flare (these flares were on a small parachute which simulated our parachutes to determine their drift). If that second flare was close to the target, then the next pass would be a live jump. Once we were in the air with a good 'chute, we would turn toward the target, and look at our wind drift. If we were right of the target, we would steer left, and vice-versa. If we were overshooting the target, we would turn around into the wind (our 35 foot parabolic canopy with either an oval in the back or a 7-TU cut in the back had forward airspeed of about 7 or 15 mph, depending upon the cut). We wanted to be to one side of the target as we came in, in order to turn toward the target and into the wind. We really did not want to hit the target, as that could hurt. But somewhere between 50 yards an a yard or two was a good jump.

We had one HC-130 Hercules jump out of a bird from Tachikawa, Japan, and I remember missing the target by about 30 yards (not winning the bet on who's closest). We were watching the last jumper, and he was lined up perfectly. Then at about 500 feet, we heard him call out, "I can't steer this thing!!!" We looked up, and he had flipped through his risers backwards, and the risers had caught on the bottom of his twin tanks. So he was coming down with his butt in the air, face and feet down, unable to do anything to the 'chute to steer. He had a hard landing, sputtered and found out that he had landed almost the closest to the target of anyone--good jumpmastering, poor parachute technique.

Photo: parascuba using the S-10 parachute with the oval cut in the back. Look to see the target one-man life raft just to the other side of the jumper.

SeaRat