PJs take on training exercise

At the beginning of January, the cadre at the USAF Pararescue School at Kirtland Air Force Base employed a dynamic exercise regimen with the 3rd Battalion, 501st Aviation Regiment, Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Armoured Division, an Army unit from Fort Bliss, Texas, to create the fog of war for their students. The 10-day final evaluation phase was designed to test students comprehensively before they earn the right to wear the maroon beret at the end of this month, according to 351st Battlefield Airman Training Squadron (PJ School) commander, Lieutenant Colonel Joe Lopez.“This is a sequence of missions that we provide these students full mission profiles and we drop several missions per day on them through the course of 10 days,” Lopez said. A mass casualty scenario the morning of 6 January demonstrated the rigor and complexity of a full mission profile, he explained. Incorporating more than 100 Airmen and Soldiers, the scenario included downed helicopters and a convoying response force that came under attack while trying to help. At that point, the PJ and CRO (combat rescue officer) students were inserted via UH-60 Blackhawks from the 3-501st. “Students have been given the mission, have planned for the mission and are preparing to arrive on station to render aide to the folks that need it,” Lopez said, as small arms fire rang out and Blackhawk rotors began slashing through the sky above the training area. The students were inserted on a hilltop while taking fire, and managed to triage, treat and transport all wounded over the course of the exercise. As the Blackhawks returned to the FOB, Blackhawk pilot and Albuquerque native Army Captain Chloe Flores said the exercise was a great opportunity for the Army contingent. “Things went really well today. This (joint training) provides a good opportunity for us to train with actual Pararescuemen, the dynamic mission set that they face really gives us an opportunity to practice how to react to that mission set and support them,” said Flores, commander of the 3-501st's Charlie Company. “It was very hasty, we had to move really fast, and aircraft had to split up to support forces (under attack) on the ground. We were sequencing aircraft out of a hot landing zone and were able to pick up the patients and bring them back to the medical facility here.” “These gentlemen have been in their course of training for approximately two to three years,” Lopez said. “The end of this training is approximately six months long – the apprentice course – they are now two to three weeks away from becoming brand new Pararescuemen and Combat Rescue Officers.” Training prior to the apprentice course at Kirtland includes Army airborne, military free fall, survival school, combat dive and emergency medical technician training and certification. The washout rate for people entering the program is between 85 and 90 per cent, Lopez said. “We are looking for someone that is extremely physically capable, but also mentally resilient and able to bring all that together on the battlefield,” he concluded.