Air Force Pararescue Killed In Action

The China Burma India Theater (CBI) was the birthplace of what would eventually become pararescue. Here was a unique combination of long overland flights through territory that was loosely held by the enemy and survivable. Dominating the flying in the CBI was 'The Hump' route: cargo flights that left India carrying thousands of tons of vital war supplies had to cross the spine of the Himalayas to reach their destinations in China. Every day thousands of flight crews and their passengers risked their lives making this passage in C-46 and C-47 aircraft. Many of these flights never arrived at their destinations due to mechanical problems, weather and mistakes. Crews forced to bail out or crash land faced weeks of hardship in tracing a path back to civilization, enduring harsh weather, little food, and the injuries they sustained during the crashes.

Air Force Pararescue Killed In Action

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Although parachute rescues were not officially authorized at the time, this is considered by PJs to be the birth of Air Force pararescue. Eric Sevareid said of his rescuers: "Gallant is a precious word: they deserve it". A few short months later, Capt. Porter was killed on a rescue mission when his B-25 was shot down.

This is the culmination of approximately two years of pararescue training. This course includes field medical care and tactics, mountaineering, shooting, combat tactics, advanced parachuting, and helicopter insertion/extraction qualifications. Upon successful completion of this course, each graduate is awarded the maroon beret and qualifies airmen as pararescue recovery specialists for assignment to any Pararescue unit worldwide.[4][14]

A participant in the Maltz Challenge does push-ups at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., March 15, 2019. This annual event began in 2006 and is held in memory of U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Michael Maltz, a Pararescueman who was killed-in-action during a rescue mission in Afghanistan on March 23, 2003. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Austin J. Prisbrey)

Participants in the Maltz Challenge perform sit-ups at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., March 15, 2019. This annual event began in 2006 and is held in memory of U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Michael Maltz, a Pararescueman who was killed in action during a rescue mission in Afghanistan on March 23, 2003. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Austin J. Prisbrey)

A participant in the Maltz Challenge performs the dip exercise at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., March 15, 2019. In addition to honoring U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Michael Maltz, the 351st Special Warfare Training Squadron (U.S. AF Pararescue School) honored U.S. Air Force Capt. Mark Weber, a combat rescue officer who was killed-in-action March 15, 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Austin J. Prisbrey)

BSN student LaTronda Coble is the A1C William Hart Pitsenbarger USAF MOH Nursing Merit Scholar. This scholarship is helping her focus fully on her nursing studies without worrying about financial challenges. Airman Pitsenbarger was a U.S. Air Force pararescue crewmember during the Vietnam War who was killed in action as he rescued and treated wounded soldiers. He posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his bravery.

Approximately 1,500 people from across the country joined together to pay tribute to Master Sgt. William Posch and Staff Sgt. Carl Enis during a memorial service March 27, 2018 at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida. The pararescuemen assigned to the 308th Rescue Squadron were two of the seven Airmen killed in an HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter crash in Anbar Province, Iraq, March 15, 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Phil Sunkel)

An Airman performs Taps during the memorial for fallen pararescuemen Master Sgt. William Posch and Staff Sgt. Carl Enis March 27, 2018 at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida. The pararescuemen assigned to the 308th Rescue Squadron were two of the seven Airmen killed in an HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter crash in Anbar Province, Iraq, March 15, 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Phil Sunkel)

A retired U.S. Air Force pararescueman punches the flash from his beret into a commemorative placard honoring fallen pararescuemen Master Sgt. William Posch and Staff Sgt. Carl Enis during a memorial service March 27, 2018 at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida. The pararescuemen were two of the seven Airmen killed in an HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter crash in Anbar Province, Iraq, March 15, 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Phil Sunkel)

Guardian Angels with the 38th Rescue Squadron, Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, conduct a three-volley gun salute in honor of pararescuemen Master Sgt. William Posch and Staff Sgt. Carl Enis during their memorial service March 27, 2018 at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida. The pararescuemen, assigned to the 308th Rescue Squadron, were two of the seven Airmen killed in an HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter crash in Anbar Province, Iraq, March 15, 2018. The 38th Rescue Squadron honored Capt. Mark Weber, a combat rescue officer with the unit who was also killed in the crash, in a memorial service the week prior. (U.S. Air Force photo by Phil Sunkel)

First Lt. Dan Warren, 212th Rescue Squadron combat rescue officer, Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, addresses the audience of nearly 1,500 people attending the memorial ceremony for fallen pararescueman Master Sgt. Bill Posch and Staff Sgt. Carl Enis March 27, 2018 at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida. The pararescuemen assigned to the 308th Rescue Squadron were two of the seven Airmen killed in an HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter crash in Anbar Province, Iraq, March 15, 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Phil Sunkel)

Lt. Col. Timothy Hanks, middle, 308th Rescue Squadron commander, and Chief Master Sgt. Mike Ziegler, right, 308th RQS chief enlisted manager, honor Master Sgt. William Posch, Staff Sgt. Carl Enis and the rest of the Jolly 51 crew who were killed in action in a helicopter crash in Anbar Province, Iraq, earlier this month, during a memorial ceremony March 27, 2018 at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida. Posch and Enis were assigned to the 308th Rescue Squadron. (U.S. Air Force photo by Matthew Jurgens)

Special Tactics Airmen carry 20 batons during a memorial march to Hurlburt Field, Fla., Oct. 13, 2015. The team of 20 Special Tactics Airmen started at 2 a.m. on Oct. 4, from Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, and marched 812 miles through five states to meet with the gold star families and end the memorial march with a ceremony on Hurlburt Field. Each two-man team walked approximately 90 miles during the 10-day trek while carrying a 50-pound ruck sack and a commemorative baton engraved with a fallen Special Tactics Airman's name. The memorial march is only held when a Special Tactics operator is killed in action that year, but honors all 19 Special Tactics pararescuemen and combat controllers who have been killed in action since 2001. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman Kai White/Released)

Twenty Special Tactics Airmen will ruck from Medina Annex at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas to Hurlburt Field to pay tribute to Staff Sgt. Dylan J. Elchin, a Special Tactics combat controller, who was killed in Afghanistan on Nov. 27, 2018, and in honor of the other 19 Special Tactics Airmen who have been killed in action since 9/11.

Born in 1944 in Piqua, Ohio, William H. Pitsenbarger was an ambitious only child. He wanted to quit high school to join the U.S. Army Special Forces' "Green Berets," but his parents convinced him to stay in school. After graduating in 1962, Pitsenbarger joined the Air Force.A1C Pitsenbarger learned his military skills in a series of demanding schools. After Air Force basic training, he volunteered for pararescue work and embarked on a rigorous training program, which included U.S. Army parachute school, survival school, a rescue and survival medical course, and the U.S. Navy's scuba diving school. More Air Force rescue training and jungle survival school followed. His final training was in air crash rescue and firefighting, with assignment to the HH-43 Huskie helicopter.Arriving in Vietnam in August 1965, Pitsenbarger completed more than 250 missions, including one in which he hung from an HH-43's cable to rescue a wounded South Vietnamese soldier from a burning minefield. This action earned him the Airman's Medal and the Republic of Vietnam's Medal of Military Merit and Gallantry Cross with Bronze Palm.William H. Pitsenbarger was only 21 years old when he was killed in action. But in his short life and valorous Air Force career, he was an example of dedication, compassion and tenacity for all those with whom he served. In his work, and especially on his final mission, Airman 1st Class Pitsenbarger embodied the pararescueman's motto: "That Others May Live."The Last Mission "There was only one man on the ground that day that would have turned down a ride out of that hellhole -- and that man was Pitsenbarger."- F. David Peters, Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry DivisionIn Vietnam Airman 1st Class William H. "Bill" Pitsenbarger gave his life so that others might live. A pararescueman, Pitsenbarger saved lives in an example of selfless heroism worthy of the Medal of Honor.On April 11, 1966, in thick jungle near Saigon, an infantry company on 134 soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division (the "Big Red One") was surrounded by a Viet Cong battalion of approximately 500 troops. In a fierce firefight, the North Vietnamese surrounded and pinned down the Americans. As the battle went on, the number of U.S. casualties grew steadily.Detachment 6 of the USAF's 38th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron received an urgent call to evacuate the wounded. Army helicopters could not land in the battle zone because there were no clearings in the tall, dense "triple canopy" forest. The tallest trees rose 150 feet, and a second layer stood at about 100 feet, with a third layer below. Only U.S. Air Force HH-43 Huskie helicopters with cables and winches could hoist the injured from the jungle.Airman Pitsenbarger was the rescue and survival specialist aboard "Pedro 73," one of the two Huskies on the mission. The Huskies were to take turns hoisting litters with critically wounded patients through the forest canopy and delivering them to a nearby airfield. Pedro 73's crew, while under fire and hovering in a hole in the forest below the tallest trees and barely large enough for the Huskie, saw that the ground troops desperately needed help loading wounded into the litter. Pitsenbarger volunteered to be lowered to the ground to help. He descended a hundred feet into the firefight with a medical bag, a supply of splints, a rifle and a pistol.On the ground, Pitsenbarger organized and speeded the evacuation, enabling the Huskies to rescue nine soldiers on several trips. Normally, pararescuemen return to the helicopter, but Pitsenbarger chose to stay and help the beleaguered troops. As the fight continued, Pedro 73 was badly damaged by ground fire and forced to withdraw. Rather than escape with the last Huskie, Pitsenbarger chose to stay on the ground and aid the wounded. Soon the firefight grew too intense for the helicopters to return.As darkness fell, Pitsenbarger not only cared for the wounded, but also collected and distributed ammunition to the surviving soldiers several times under enemy fire. In the early evening he was mortally wounded fighting alongside the remaining infantrymen. The Viet Cong withdrew during the night, and the following morning U.S. forces were able to recover survivors and the fallen. Charlie Company had suffered 80 percent casualties.For coordinating the successful rescues, caring for the wounded and sacrificing his life while aggressively defending his comrades, William H. Pitsenbarger received the Air Force Cross on June 30, 1966. After review, the original award was upgraded, and on Dec. 8, 2000, the Medal of Honor was presented to his family in a ceremony at the U.S. Air Force Museum. Airman Pitsenbarger is the 59th Medal of Honor recipient, and sixth enlisted recipient, from the Air Force and its predecessor organizations.Click here to return to Combat Search and Rescue in Southeast Asia. 2ff7e9595c