Air Force Special Operations Command's pararescuemen, also known as PJs, are the only Department of Defense specialty specifically trained and equipped to conduct conventional or unconventional rescue operations. PJs are the ideal force for assisted survivor recovery.

A pararescueman's primary function is as a personnel recovery specialist, with emergency medical capabilities in humanitarian and combat environments.They deploy in any available manner, to include air-land-sea tactics, into restricted environments to authenticate, extract, treat, stabilize and evacuate injured personnel, while acting in an enemy-evading, recovery role. PJs participate in search and rescue, combat search and rescue, recovery support for NASA and conduct other operations as appropriate.

Pararescuemen are among the most highly trained emergency trauma specialists in the U.S. military. They must maintain an Emergency Medical Technician Paramedic qualification throughout their careers. With this medical and rescue expertise, along with their deployment capabilities, pararescuemen are able to perform life-saving missions in the world's most remote areas.

Their motto "That Others May Live" reaffirms the pararescueman's commitment to saving lives and self-sacrifice. Without pararescuemen, thousands of service members and civilians would have been unnecessarily lost in past conflicts and natural disasters.

Special Tactics Teams

Assigned to AFSOC, pararescuemen join forces with combat controllers and combat weathermen to form a highly trained Special Tactics teams.

A Special Tactics team frequently operates with Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and Special Forces in airfield seizures and personnel recovery missions in hostile territory. Operating in all climates, day or night, special tactics operators maintain the highest standards of physical fitness and proficiency in the use of light weapons.

Pararescuemen are an integral part of an elite ground combat team that specializes in unconventional missions. They endure some of the toughest training offered in the U.S. military. Their training, as well as their unique mission, earns them the right to wear the maroon beret.

Training

Pararescuemen complete the same technical training as EMT-Paramedics. Plus the following physical and specialized training.

Indoctrination Course, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas -- This 10-week Indoctrination Course recruits, selects and trains future PJs through extensive physical conditioning. Training accomplished at this course includes physiological training, obstacle course, rucksack marches, dive physics, dive tables, metric manipulations, medical terminology, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, weapons qualifications, PJ history and leadership reaction course.

U.S. Army Airborne School, Fort Benning, Ga. -- Trainees learn the basic parachuting skills required to infiltrate an objective area by static line airdrop in a three-week course.

U.S. Army Combat Divers School, Key West, Fla. -- In Key West, trainees become combat divers, learning to use scuba to infiltrate areas undetected in the four-week school. This course provides training to depths of 130 feet, stressing development of maximum underwater mobility under various operating conditions.

U.S. Navy Underwater Egress Training, Pensacola Naval Air Station, Fla. -- This course teaches how to safely escape from an aircraft that has ditched in the water. The one-day instruction includes principles, procedures and techniques necessary to get out of a sinking aircraft.

U.S. Air Force Basic Survival School, Fairchild AFB, Wash. -- This two and a half-week course teaches basic survival techniques for remote areas. Instruction includes principles, procedures, equipment and techniques, which enable individuals to survive, regardless of climatic conditions or unfriendly environments and return home.

U.S. Army Military Free Fall Parachutist School, Fort Bragg, N.C., and Yuma Proving Grounds, Ariz. -- This course instructs trainees in free fall parachuting procedures. The five-week course provides wind tunnel training, in-air instruction focusing on student stability, aerial maneuvers, air sense and parachute opening procedures.

Paramedic Course, Kirtland AFB, N.M. -- This 24-week course teaches how to manage trauma patients prior to evacuation and provide emergency medical treatment. Upon graduation, an EMT-Paramedic certification is awarded through the National Registry.

Pararescue Recovery Specialist Course, Kirtland AFB, N.M. -- Qualifies airmen as pararescue recovery specialists for assignment to any pararescue unit worldwide. The 20-week training includes field tactics, mountaineering, combat tactics, advanced parachuting and helicopter insertion/extraction.

History

· The first medical corpsmen were airdropped in 1943 to a downed aircrew in a remote location on the China-Burma border.

· Pararescemen, known at the time as para-jumpers or PJs, respond to the need for a highly trained rescue force.

· PJs begin to integrate scuba techniques into their tactics, jumping with more than 170 pounds of equipment.

· Pararescuemen prove to be the premier rescue force rescuing downed pilots in wartime, Gemini mission astronauts in the 1960s and San Francisco earthquake victims in 1989.

· Pararescuemen continue to deploy so "That Others May Live" whenever they are called to help resolve international emergencies and humanitarian relief efforts.

Knowing you are both Angels of Mercy and Angels of deth to those who interfere with your mercy, we have borrowed Your Beret Crest and given her Deaths Head as a warning to those who might challenge your tenacity to save lives. Please keep it it up so “That Others May Live”.