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CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan (12/01/2012) - Four New York
City firefighters, four airmen, four friends, one team, one
HH-60 Pave Hawk, one crew deployed together with the 26th
Expeditionary Rescue Squadron to Camp Bastion, Afghanistan,
and they brought a flavor unique of New York Fire
Departments with them.
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(From left) Capt. Shaun Cullen, Capt. Tripp Zanetis, Tech. Sgt. Jim Denniston
and Tech. Sgt. Erick Pound are all members of the 101st Rescue
Squadron, New York Air National Guard, currently assigned to the
26th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron, take turns “busting each other's
chops,” following shift-change at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan Nov. 29,
2012. They are all firefighters when not activated. U.S. Air Force photo by Master
Sgt. Russell Martin
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Capt. Shaun Cullen, Capt.
Tripp Zanetis, Tech. Sgt. Erick Pound and Tech. Sgt. Jim
Denniston are all members of the 101st Rescue Squadron, New
York Air National Guard, and they are all firefighters when
not activated. Cullen, the aircraft commander, is assigned
to Engine 54, in Midtown Manhattan; Zanetis, the copilot, is
assigned to Ladder 11 in Lower East Manhattan; Pound, the
aerial gunner, is assigned to Engine 58 in Harlem; and
Denniston, the flight engineer, is assigned to Engine 285 in
Queens. Back home, they're all from a different "ladder" and
a different "engine" designation, but at Camp Bastion they
share one, Pedro 24.
"This is a first," said Zanetis.
"An entire rescue crew made up of New York City
Firefighters. We may have different jobs to do, but we all
know what each other are capable of and what to expect when
we fly together."
Crews are on standby
around-the-clock to provide personnel recovery capabilities
with medical evacuation operations in Afghanistan's Regional
Command Southwest. The Pave Hawk is a highly modified
version of the Black Hawk helicopter, which features
specialized rescue mission equipment, including a hoist
capable of lifting a 600-pound load from a hover height of
200 feet. The Pave Hawk helicopter aircrews are teamed with
Air Force pararescuemen and combat rescue officers. Together
they are the only Defense Department elite combat forces
specifically organized, trained, equipped and postured to
conduct full-spectrum personnel recovery to include
conventional and unconventional combat rescue operations.
As part of the 26th ERQS, the airmen may serve many
different functions, but they are all part of one crew, one
team that's charged with responding to air-evacuation calls
for downed Airmen, injured service members on missions
outside the wire, and even humanitarian missions to aid
civilians in the event they are involved in an improvised
explosive device explosion or have been injured during a
small-arms conflict. In the past 60 days since being
deployed to Camp Bastion, they have more than 50 missions
together as a team, and they assisted in stabilizing and
extracting casualties close to double that amount.
Their relationship is forged in fire, and galvanized daily
in the skies above and the mountainous terrain below in
Afghanistan. From the start, they knew their experiences
back home would bond them together downrange.
"From
day one we gelled," said Denniston. "There's something
different about firefighters. You can walk into any given
situation when you're called up (on active-duty) and meet
another Airman that you have never seen a day in your life
and within minutes can say, 'What ladder are you on? What
department?'"
Their first day as a team required them
to scramble for an alert in Helmand province. The crew,
carrying three Guardian Angel pararescuemen, negotiated the
mountainous terrain to find their objective, civilian
casualties who were the victim of an IED strike. Prior to
landing, they had to quickly assess the situation before
possibly entering harm's way.
"You really didn't
know what to expect, it was our first day," Cullen said. "We
went out in a two-ship to the site and our adrenaline
started pumping...we knew there were casualties and we
needed to get them out. But were insurgents laying a trap
for us? There have been scenarios where they bate rescue
forces in only to ambush them, and we needed to quickly
asses if this was one of those instances.
"After
surveying the area and the terrain enough to where we felt
comfortable setting down, we began to dive at about 6,000
feet-per-minute, just slicing through the sky. It was
amazing. And because we, as a team, were able to coordinate
so well, something that seemed daunting went off without a
hitch."
The crew admits that though their ride may be
different, their attitude and drive to save lives remain the
same.
"Here, we can fight our way in; we can fight
our way out. We have a different platform, but we'll use our
tactics to try and save anyone when called upon," Denniston
said. "But just like at home, we're going in. Whether it's a
massive fire with people trapped on the 16th floor back
home, or a hot-zone here with IEDs and small-arms fire.
We're going to go in, and we're going to do everything in
our power to ensure they get out and have a chance."
At home, or in Afghanistan, they are rescue. But here, they
brought a little bit of FDNY flavor to their unit. Though
many Airmen assigned to the 26th ERQS are from the 101st New
York ANG, only a handful are firefighters and they have a
style all their own.
"We're deployed, so we know that
we're not going to have the best cooking, not that it's bad,
but it's definitely not like it is at home," Cullen said.
"So we take the same approach from time to time that we do
back home... we get everyone together to chip in and buy
some food and then we'll all get together and cook it up for
a big feast. It definitely brings that sense of being in a
fire unit back."
The crews work around-the-clock, on
12-hour shifts. Pedro 24 is on standby for the morning
missions from 1 a.m. to 1 p.m. And when they're not in the
air, on a mission, they're on alert waiting to respond at a
moment's notice. A 15-minute response time is the standard,
but the entire 26th ERQS has blown away that mark and cut
their response time to an average of 7-8 minutes, according
to Zanetis. But until they hear the call "Scramble,
scramble, scramble," come across the loud speaker they do
what comes naturally, "bust each other's chops."
"Oh
we're vicious," Pound said. "It's a lot like it is at home,
'no thin skins.' We give each other a hard time but no one
takes it to heart. It's part of who we are and we know it's
all in good fun, after all we're family. But if the
'scramble,' is called, we get right down to business."
The team said no one wants to necessarily hear the call
to scramble. The call to scramble generally means that
someone, somewhere is badly injured. But a scramble and a
save is a good day for Pedro 24.
"We don't like
sitting around waiting for a call to come," said Cullen.
"But we also understand that if we're needed, then someone
is having a really bad day. Just like at home, if the bell
sounds, it's an emergency and we have to respond quickly to
save lives. We will answer that bell, that scramble-call
without hesitation. That's our mission, and that's what we
love."
As part of the Air National Guard, units can
determine how they want to distribute deployment length.
They have the option of deploying for 60 days or the full
120 days. While most of the crew will stay on for the full
120, Denniston, who was newly married in May, will be
redeploying in the coming weeks to backfill an Active
Guard/Reserve position at the 101st RQS back in New York,
breaking up the all-FDNY firefighter team.
"I'd stay
if I could, but they needed a body back home and since I
don't want to be divorced already, I have to go," Denniston
laughed. "But they've already anointed me the man in-charge
of putting together the welcome-home party for when they
join me in a couple months. "
By USAF Master Sgt. Russell Martin
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2012
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