The airmen of Air Education and Training Command’s 36th Rescue Flight at Fairchild AFB, Wash., ply their trade primarily for USAF Survival School students, but they also get tapped for local area rescues. Earlier this month, the UH-1N helicopter unit performed its 613th save, rescuing a woman with a broken leg in rough terrain in Idaho. Just a few days earlier in another part of Idaho, they brought out a man and his teenage son stranded overnight when their snowmobiles got stuck in deep snow.
The U.S. supports “a stronger and more capable” European defense, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said during an Oct. 22 press conference in Brussels—but that defense should not duplicate the functions and capabilities of the NATO alliance.