Lifeguards to the pararescue Published Aug. 21, 2009 By Megan Just 452 AMW/PA MARCH ARB, CALIF. -- A picturesque, palm-tree lined beach teeming with sunbathers seems to be an unlikely place to find a recruiting booth for one of the most elite special forces squadrons in the United States. Yet, the sunny California beaches were exactly what Air Force Reserve recruiter Tech. Sgt. William Biddle had in mind when he enlisted help from the Western Recruiting Squadron based at March ARB to host pararescue booths at two recent oceanside festivals. "We went out to California to target people who are interested in saving lives. And who else than the lifeguards on the California coast?" Sergeant Biddle asked. Tech. Sgt. Biddle is a Western Recruiting Squadron recruiter based in Tucson, Arizona, who has created a niche in pararescue recruiting for the 306th Pararescue Squadron at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, also in Tucson. The recruiters had booths at the San Clemente Ocean Festival and the West Coast Lifeguard Championships at Seal Beach. "It was the first time I've ever done a recruiting event at a beach. We raised a lot of awareness because there were people there from all different parts of the state," said Staff Sgt. Long Diep, a recruiter based at March ARB. Sergeant Diep assisted at the Seal Beach event. "They did everything from paddle boarding to a mile ocean swim to a run-swim-run--all kinds of different competitions. These are the type of people we would like to target because they have that physical ability to swim and run and perform the kinds of duties that we require in a tryout," Sergeant Biddle said. "We were able to plant a lot of seeds with these young adults because ninety-nine percent of the people who walked up to our booth were asking us 'Why does the Air Force have SCUBA gear? Why does the Air Force have climbing equipment?' They had never heard of the pararescue program. Everybody knows what a Navy SEAL is. Everybody knows what an Army Ranger is. But not everybody knows what a Pararescueman is." Like the jobs of SEALs and Rangers, Pararescuemens' duties are not for the faint of heart. "The wartime mission is to go outside the wire and rescue injured assets whether it be Air Force or other services or even foreign military. Their job is to save lives. They get there by any means necessary and they are highly trained in jumping, free fall, high altitude opening, and SCUBA diving," Sergeant Biddle said. "Any way they can get there, they'll get there. And they're always training to do that mission." Peacetime pararescue missions focus on two areas: hurricane relief and shuttle missions. "When the space shuttle takes off, they're on the ground with the helicopter running 700 to 800 yards away. They're the closest personnel to the shuttle besides the people in the tower during the launch. That's in case there are any mid-ocean mishaps," Sergeant Biddle said. Recent base realignments caused 15 hard-to-fill pararescue positions to suddenly open with the 306th Pararescue Squadron. The positions are hard to fill because the 306th isn't just any pararescue squadron: it is a tier one rescue team that is specially trained to work with other military special forces units. Pararescuemen from the 306th Squadron often get to go through courses such as Navy Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) or Army Ranger School. "This is the hardest unit in the country to get into and the reason it's the hardest is because of the selection day process they go through," Sergeant Biddle said. Tryouts at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona begin with an Air Force Special Operations Command (AVSOC) physical fitness test, which is the same test a Pararescueman or Combat Rescue Officer (CRO) will have to take for the rest of their career. "After the test, they go through a typical day in the life of a typical pararescueman in training. They'll see anything from buddy breathing to fin swimming to a rucksack run and we even have a mud pit here like you would see in indoc," Sergeant Biddle said. "We put them through the wringer all day long and, if they can make it all day after their AVSOC test to late in the afternoon and get to the interview process, they'll go a pararescue board and the pararescue board recommends for the command board." If a candidate passes the command board, it means they have been selected to enter the pararescue training pipeline. The rigorous selection day tryouts at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base seem to attract, rather than deter, potential pararescuemen. Sergeant Biddle has seen men come from as far as Virginia, Texas, Wisconsin, Washington state, and even overseas. "I get phone calls from Iraq and Afghanistan all the time from people who have talked to our guys when they're out on missions," he said. There is an element of confidence that a future pararescueman can gain from a tryout at Davis-Monthan. "If you can make it through the selection day here at the 306th, then you have nearly a hundred percent pass rate in indoc whereas all the other units have an eighty percent washout rate," Sergeant Biddle said. The 306th Squadron held their summer tryouts August 12. Out of the six who tried out, one Pararescueman and two CROs were selected. One of the CROs was from San Diego-based Reserve recruiter Staff Sgt. Danielle Davies, who had assisted with the San Clemente Ocean Festival booth. At tryouts, six candidates is a comfortably-sized group, but Sergeant Biddle would like to see more. "Not everyone wants to come tryout in the summer in Tucson. It's understandable. We had a guy come from Michigan and he didn't do so well. We believe it was because of the climate and we asked him to come back in the winter." After all, it was 104 degrees the day of the test. Sergeant Biddle expects more candidates at the next tryout in the fall, many of whom were contacted via the seaside recruiting trip. "On top of the two events that we did, we actually went to every single lifeguard headquarters from San Diego to L.A. and we posted flyers at every single one. It was great to see the coast of California and we talked to a lot of lifeguards who wanted to come try out, but August was a little too soon for them because of the lifeguard season," Sergeant Biddle said. "I am getting a lot of phone calls from people who are going to come tryout in the fall." The job of a Reserve pararescueman is much more involved than other Reserve career fields. In the past, Sergeant Diep has talked with several men who were initially interested in pararescue, but changed their minds because of the difficulty. "The lifestyle of an Air Force Reserve pararescueman isn't your normal one weekend a month, two weeks a year job. They perform duties maybe five to six days a month because they have so many qualifications they have to keep up on," Sergeant Biddle said. Some of the qualifications pararescuers must maintain include SCUBA diving, parachuting, and emergency medical treatment, as well as keeping up on their flight hours, primarily in their HH-60 Bayhawk helicopters. After a candidate has been selected for the Reserve pararescue career field, they will need to move to the local area for the training pipeline that normally lasts between two and three years. If they're brand new to the military, they'll work with a recruiter in their home state, come out for tryouts, then go out to basic training from their home state. "Once they are qualified for the Air Force Reserve, I set them up with Sergeant Biddle," said Sergeant Diep. The need for high-caliber pararescue recruits will not decrease once the initial vacancies at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base have been filled. "We constantly need to be feeding the pipeline. Just because we put ten people in the pipeline doesn't mean we're going to get ten people back out," Sergeant Biddle said. Biddle has observed that, next to the pararescue indoctrination course, the most washouts occur during paramedic training--an area where it would be almost impossible to pre-test for success. Injuries are common too, especially in some of the jump schools. After injuries, Airmen must take the time to recover before returning the pipeline. Sergeant Biddle is confident the oceanfront recruiting booths, along with the lifeguard outreach, were a success. "If they want to save lives, this is the career field for them," he said. A sampling of pararescue training Pararescue Indoctrination Lackland AFB, Texas Combat Diver Course Panama City, Fla. Basic Army Airborne School Fort Benning, Ga. Military Free Fall School Yuma, Ariz. Basic Survival School Fairchild AFB, Wa. Navy Underwater Egress Pensacola, Fla. EMT-Paramedic Certification Kirtland AFB, NM Recovery Specialist Course Kirtland AFB, NM AVSOC fitness test Run 3 miles (21 min.) Complete 65 sit ups, 65 push ups, 9 pull ups (2 min. for each) 1500 meter swim (34 min.) 25 meter underwater swim