National Geographic series to feature combat rescue Airmen

  • Published
  • By Don Branum
  • Air Force Academy Public Affairs
Airmen featured in National Geographic Channel's "Inside Combat Rescue" TV series, along with the series' producer, visited the Air Force Academy Feb. 1 to talk about the program and the combat rescue career field.

The presentation included a question-and-answer session with Airmen featured in the series as well as a preview of an episode from the series, featuring a mix of mundane moments and a dramatic rescue in which Airmen rescued and stabilized an Army Green Beret hit by a roadside bomb.

"You've got this moment in your life where you can't express how you feel," a pararescueman explains to a camera crew after the rescue mission. "Could I talk to someone about it? Sure, but would they understand what I'm trying to say to them?"

National Geographic TV first approached the Air Force in January 2012 with an idea for a show about combat rescue. Lt. Col. Francisco Hamm, director of the Air Force Entertainment Liaison Office in Hollywood, worked with the company to find an Air Force unit the film crew could embed with.

"As far as I know, we've never really had a production crew for a documentary embed with an Air Force unit in Iraq or Afghanistan," Hamm said. "Certainly this was historic for the pararescue mission because we've never done that."

Hamm looked at both Air Combat Command and Air Force Special Operations Command units.

"The right fit looked to be ACC because we could embed with an entire squadron, whereas with AFSOC you have multiple services involved, so it starts to become more complicated," Hamm said.

Hamm complimented the "Inside Combat Rescue" crew for their collaboration and communication efforts.

"The way that we set this up, we (embedded) the NatGeo team with this particular group of Airmen and really got unfiltered access to this mission and to these Airmen," Hamm said. "Because of that, the storytelling is stronger and encompasses not just the operations but also the personalities of these guys."

The film crew headed to Afghanistan almost immediately after getting the green light, said series producer Jared McGilliard. Cameramen focused on following the pararescue Airmen's lead and quickly got up to speed.

"They were very receptive," said Capt. Seth Davis, a combat rescue officer with the 38th Rescue Squadron at Moody Air Force Base, Ga. "They didn't get in our way too much."

Jokingly, he added, "Plus I always had the power to say, 'You can't use anything I just said.'"

Staff Sgt. Brett Taylor, a pararescueman with the 38th, also joked about how the crew "made us wear mikes every single day." More seriously, he added, "They learned to give us some time after missions."

"They were consummate professionals," said Maj. Devin Ryan, an HH-60 Pave Hawk pilot with the 66th RQS at Nellis AFB, Nev., who graduated from the Academy in 2001. "They were fully engaged from the beginning. That level of professionalism is outstanding."

The relationship among pararescuemen and aircraft crew was also positive, Ryan said.

"This is my eighth deployment, and it's the best working relationship I've ever been a part of," he said. "We lived right next to each other, and we had meetings every day."

"The PJ-pilot relationship is always personality-driven," Davis said. "We're all low-key guys. The relationship we had with the crews was great."
Operations in Kandahar involved 14-hour days, though the mission tempo varied. Davis recalled a stretch of 22 days with no rescue missions during the four-month deployment.

"It's really hit-or-miss," he said. "As operations draw down, fewer people are getting hurt."

But while the tempo may slow down in Afghanistan, it's picking up in other parts of the world, Davis said.

"There are so many requests that if we pull entirely out of (Afghanistan), we're just going to go somewhere else," he added.

Once the Airmen return from deployments, they work for two weeks before going on leave, Davis said.

"That lets us keep our eyes on the guys, make sure they're good and get them back on the routine again," he said. "It's really important just to let guys know there are folks they can talk to."

Davis and Ryan both praised the Academy for its role in preparing future officers for combat-related careers.

"At graduation, I didn't really see how anything would prepare me for what's going on" in the operational Air Force, Ryan said. "But dealing with different people and coming to understand your point of view isn't necessarily the best one is probably the most important experience."

Davis added that the Academy's military and physical training do a lot to prepare cadets for the pararescue training pipeline, but he warned that the training is still brutal.

"Where we wash out a lot of guys is in the water, so make sure you can swim," he said.

Taylor, who's deployed six times, added some words of advice for the future officers.

"Be professional. Be a leader. Understand what's going on, and have the confidence to lead your guys," he said.

The first episode of "Inside Combat Rescue" is scheduled to air on the National Geographic Channel Feb. 18 at 8 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.