Alaska Air Guardsmen Rescue Squadrons to deploy to Africa

Multiple Air National Guard members are set to deploy to Africa. According to the Alaska Air National Guard members of 210th and 212th Rescue Squadrons are scheduled to deploy June 8th to Africa Command area of operations.

In a press release, Alaska Air National Guard officials said additional unit members deploying for this mission departed yesterday and others are scheduled to depart Saturday night.

Airmen of 210th RQS operate the HH-60G Pave Hawk combat search and rescue helicopter.

Also, Airmen of 212th RQS are skilled parachutists, scuba divers and rock climbers responsible for rescuing isolated U.S. and allied military members.

According to the release, support Airmen of 176th Wing will also deploy and will maintain the helicopters and provide other support functions.

The primary mission of the Pave Hawk is to conduct daily personnel recovery operations into hostile environments to recover isolated personnel during war and is a highly modified version of the Army Black Hawk helicopter.