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48th RQS awarded rescue mission of the year

   by Senior Airman
CHEYENNE POWERS

                                                               355th Wing Public Affairs                                                                                                         Staff Sgt. Janiqua robinson  SPOTLIGHT

   U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein presented the 48th Rescue            Airmen from the 41st and 48th rescue squadrons pose for a photo with Air
Squadron, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, with the Jolly Green Rescue Mission               Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein, during a banquet celebrating the
of the Year award.                                                                        50th reunion of the Jolly Green Association, in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
                                                                                          The JGA presented Airmen from the 48th and 41st RQSs with the Rescue Mis-
   Tech. Sgt. Benjamin Cole, 48th RQS pararescueman, was the team-lead of five            sion of the Year award; the only non-Air Force rescue award recognized by
pararescuemen and one combat rescue officer, on a combat rescue mission in                the Air Force.
Somalia, June 2018.
                                                                                          During this time his aircraft conducted close-air support for the ground forces.
   While assigned to the 435th Air Expeditionary Wing, Camp Lemonnier Republic               “We were forward and very reactive so we got overhead very quickly,” George
of Djibouti, Africa, Cole’s team received a request to reposition to a forward op-
erating base. There they waited to provide medical support to U.S. Army Special           said. “That part of getting notified and overhead really made a difference in how
Forces who were sent out to advise and assist local partner forces.                       the mission happened. Those lives were saved because we were prepared and able
                                                                                          to get overhead very quickly.”
   Three days into the operation they came under attack. Multiple machine gun
nests and an unidentified mortar position rained down on the ground forces. Cole’s           Cole and his team’s actions saved the lives of four military personnel, including
team responded to the casualty evacuation request and within 14 minutes were              one local force member, and brought one fallen U.S. service member home.
overhead the active engagement. Once there, they provided suppressive fire for the
ground forces in their HH-60G Pavehawks from the 41st RQS, Moody AFB, Georgia.               “We do this because we believe in the mission,” George said. “You trust your
                                                                                          training and the guy next to you. We really believe in what we do. To have them
   Cole’s aircraft was exposed to heavy machine gun fire and mortar rounds, while         be recognized to me is a marker of how important this is, and gives me a chance
also overcoming degraded communications with the joint terminal attack controller         to reflect [on] the type of people we have in an organization like this and the dif-
on the ground. With a lack of information, Cole and the Team CRO decided to land          ference we can make.”
the lead aircraft to triage the developing situation. On the ground, Cole linked up
with the ground force medic to load the most critical patients onto the aircraft.

   “I expect them to make decisions,” said Lt. Col. Blake George, 48th RSQ com-
mander. “We recruit and train guys that can make dynamic decisions on the fly,
just like they did in that mission and it makes all the difference.”

   With the patients loaded, the lead aircraft took off to provide cover fire for the
team’s trail aircraft to pick up an additional injury. During the second pick up,
Cole and the other pararescuemen secured a surgical airway and gained interos-
seous access to administer a blood transfusion while en route to the surgical team.

   “The lead had to stay overhead to continue to provide suppressive fire for the
trail,” George said. “So they had to keep providing care while the HH-60G went
into hard banks and fired the 50 cal. machine gun. They had to provide high level
trauma medical care while the aircraft was in the middle of a combat mission.”

   Upon return to their forward operating base, Cole was notified that the ground
force had sustained more casualties. He immediately directed his team to reload
the aircraft and return to the incident site.

   After a second flight, they were once again running gun passes to get into the
zone. Cole decided to have his trail aircraft land to pick up the remaining casualty.

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