USAF Pararescue and Scuba Diving

[John C. Ratliff]

@John C. Ratliff

...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.

Okay, I'll try to answer a few more questions here.

What kind of medical treatment can be administered? Well, we were trained to use most any available medical treatment for trauma, including IVs, drugs, maintaining an airway (up to and including a cricothyroidotomy), and most any medical trauma. We also attended to things like child birth, heat and cold injuries, heart attacks (although at that time we had no ECGs available--cannot say about now). But most of our training was for traumatic injuries.

Is the idea to await rescue by ship or sub? Not necessarily.
This is a short clip of the HC-130 equipped with the Fulton Recovery System. We were trained in its use, but by the time I was in as a PJ we did not actively ride the system anymore. It was used during Apollo to recover film from the Navy ships, for instance, and was man-rated. There are rumors that this system was used in Laos and possibly North Vietnam to extract people from very difficult situations, but I've never confirmed that info. And yes, this Fulton recovery system was featured in a popular James Bond movie in the 1960s or early 1970s, as was the USAF parascuba jump out of a HC-97 portrayed in "Thunderball."

The HU-16B Albatross could land on water, and there were definitely pickups out of Haiphong Harbor in North Vietnam of pilots who were shot down. Here are two citations for the Silver Star:

James E. Pleiman
Silver Star
November 1, 1965

Citation to accompany the award of the Silver Star to Airman Second Class James E. Pleiman.

Airman Second Class James E. Pleiman distinguished himself by gallantry in connection with military operations against an opposing armed force over North Vietnam on 1 November 1965. On that date, Airman Pleiman was instrumental in effecting the safe and expeditious recovery of a United States Air force RF-101 Pilot from hostile waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. With complete disregard for his safety, and with armed hostile swimmers within one hundred feet of him, Airman Pleiman jumped into the water to assist the pilot. This courageous and aggressive action promulgated against overwhelming odds, resulted in reducing the time the aircraft and crew were exposed to hostile fire. By his gallantry and devotion to duty, Airman Pleiman has reflected great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.

Note the date. Here is the second Silver Star:

James E. Pleiman KIA
March 14, 1966

The UH-16 was first on station, supported by fixed-wing aircraft. When Westenbarger landed, the Albatross drew artillery and mortar fire from emplacements ashore as well as small-arms fire from sampans headed out to capture the downed F-4 crewmen. As the UH-16 crew, with A1c Pleiman in the water, attempted to assist Major Peerson aboard, the HU-16 was hit by an artillery shell and exploded in flames, leaving eight men in the water. A Navy SH-3 helicopter from HS-4 was able to pick up Major Peerson before being forced from the area with combat damage. A second SH-3 (also HS-4), operating under cover of supporting fixed-wing aircraft, picked up Bryant, Westenbarger, Hall, and Jackson, and a Navy UH-2 from HC-2 later picked up Captain Price. The rescued HU-16 crewmen stated that A1c Hilton was killed before the Albatross was abandoned and that A1c Pleiman was floating face-down in the water afterwards. Neither Hilton nor Pleiman were recovered. James Pleiman, A1C, Air Force, Russia OH, 24Mar66 06E007 - The Virtual Wall®

I'll add just a bit more about this story later.

SeaRat

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Here is some of the "Rest of the Story" above. One of the pilots, David Wendt, that I served with in the 304th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron, Portland, Oregon had also been at my other unit, the 33rd ARRSq in Okinawa. He wrote me the following e-mail:

“After our SS mission in Nov 64, when our PJ - Pleiman, as I recall - thought that having a rope around his middle and being helped back to the -16 would be a good idea. This was used for 6 months or so until Capt Westenbarger, on a mission right off the NVN coast, was hit by a mortar round. The RO was killed, the PJ injured and was taken under by the rope when the plane sank. The Nav got the AF Cross on that msn. They stopped tying the PJ to the plane after that.....”

David Wendt, HU-16 Rescue Pilot

It was Jim Pleiman who lost his life on that mission, as described above. A lot of times the PJs and the Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service in general had to improvise as some methods had never been worked out. Many times, because of the improvising, missions were accomplished. But sometimes, like this tying a PJ to the flying boat, they did not.
______________
Okay, I'm going to make something rather clear here; this thread won't be much about me and my own experiences, except for some diving-related materials, as I'm currently writing my own memoir about my experiences. Rather, I will relate stories I have heard about other's experiences that relate to both Pararescue and diving. One of my goals is to have others recognize those PJs who have earned recognition and who have gone rather unpublicized by the press and are mostly unknown by the public in general, and the diving community in particular.

SeaRat

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Speaking of water, here's how it is done today. The 920 Rescue Wing just went on a mission to help a sinking sailboat's sailors. The jumpers jumped out of an HC-130. Here's what the jump looked like:
Note that they launched a package on a parachute and jumped after it. This was not parascuba, but rather a water jump in swim gear. The "package" was most likely a zodiac boat, complete with an outboard, to aid in the pickup.

After the jump, the 920th Rescue Wing launched, then air-to-air refueled two HH-60 helicopters to make the pickups. This occurred over 500 miles from land, and according to the squadron there had been a fire on board, and both sailors were burned.
http://www.floridatoday.com/story/n...team-saves-father-son-stranded-sea/461721001/

SeaRat

 

[tilikum]

Impressive

 

[DiveSoup]

John,

Great information, thanks for sharing your stories. Diving is a currently a standard part of the Pararescue skillset but has it always been that way? From what I've read it seems to have started with NASA in the 60's but there has to be more to the story.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

John,

Great information, thanks for sharing your stories. Diving is a currently a standard part of the Pararescue skillset but has it always been that way? From what I've read it seems to have started with NASA in the 60's but there has to be more to the story.

Rich,

NASA had a lot to do with Pararescue starting to dive, but the water requirement pre-dates the NASA mission. During the Korean War the USAF used amphibian aircraft, specifically the SA-16 Albatross, for rescue purposes. There was also the requirement in the 1950s to recover satellite payloads which necessitated either air-to-air recovery or parascuba jumps. The Fulton Recovery System was initially used, before becoming man-rated, to recover these payloads from the water after a team of PJs made a parascuba jump on them. I have some photos from that time period which I will post. The PJs at that time wore twin 38s, with a manifold guard, under their parachute gear. The regulator was a US Divers Company Mistral single stage double hose regulator.

SeaRat

 

[Akimbo]

The PJs at that time wore twin 38s...

Were those the 1800 PSI bottles that required a NPT bushing for 1/2" CGA (almost like 1/2" NPT) manifolds? I had three sets in the 1960s... sweet little rigs.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Here is the page from the Pararescue Association book, Pararescue--Fifty Years that shows in the middle photo the use of the twin 38s under the parachute gear. I may have a few better ones, if I can find them, or can scan them.

Akimbo, I don't know whether these bottles had to have the NTB bushing, but they almost certainly were 1/2 inch tapered thread valves, as that was what was available then.

When the Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service was established, the "Recovery" part was for spacecraft, manned and unmanned. During the Cold War, there were satellite retrievals that were made containing data and photos on Eastern block nations, and that was part of the mission of ARRS.

SeaRat

 

[DiveSoup]

Great information, thanks. Its cool to see the pictures with the old double hose regulators. This style is still found on the current Air Force Dive badge despite the other high-speed divers updating their badges to match more current systems. While in some ways an update of the badge might be appropriate, it is cool to see the heritage from where it came.

Did every PJ attend the Navy diving course at the time or was it only those assigned to the Aerospace Recovery mission? How about the closed circuit systems? Was this just a byproduct of making the Army SF SCUBA school the norm or are there some good history behind that?

 

[John C. Ratliff]

I found the older photos of the first parascuba gear. Here it is:

Great information, thanks. Its cool to see the pictures with the old double hose regulators. This style is still found on the current Air Force Dive badge despite the other high-speed divers updating their badges to match more current systems. While in some ways an update of the badge might be appropriate, it is cool to see the heritage from where it came.

Did every PJ attend the Navy diving course at the time or was it only those assigned to the Aerospace Recovery mission? How about the closed circuit systems? Was this just a byproduct of making the Army SF SCUBA school the norm or are there some good history behind that?

That is interesting about the Air Force Dive Badge. I never got one of those, nor have I seen one. I am looking at the history now in the book by the Pararescue Association, Pararescue--Fifty Years.

Now, concerning the diving course at the U.S. Navy School for Underwater Swimmers, that is the course I went through in 1967. It started out in Hawaii, then went to Key West. Finally, there was a problem when the U.S. Navy downgraded the training, and we went to the U.S. Army in 1974. I'll provide a separate post which quotes this book on the subject below.

SeaRat