Patrick Space Force Base 920th Rescue Wing Names Outstanding Airmen For First Quarter of 2024

PUBLIC SERVICE SPOTLIGHT

BREVARD COUNTY • PATRICK SPACE FORCE BASE, FLORIDA – The 920th Rescue Wing announced the outstanding Airmen of the First Quarter of 2024.

Headquartered at Patrick Space Force Base in Brevard County, the 920 RQW is AFRC’s premier combat search and rescue (CSAR) unit. The wing consists of over 2,500 Airmen, trained and equipped to locate and recover U.S. Armed Forces personnel during both peacetime and wartime military operations.

The winners are:

■ Airman of the Quarter – Senior Airman Monica Shaw, 920th Communications Flight

■ Noncommissioned Officer of the Quarter – Tech. Sgt. Eric Luna Falcon, 920th Maintenance Squadron

■ Senior Noncommissioned Officer of the Quarter – Master Sgt. Christopher Paredes, 943d Maintenance Squadron

■ Company Grade Officer of the Quarter – Capt. Anthony LaPorta, 943d Maintenance Squadron

■ Field Grade Officer of the Quarter – Maj. David Carriere, 301st Rescue Squadron

■ Civilian of the Quarter – Mr. Ricardo De La Cruz, Jr.

Headquartered at Patrick Space Force Base in Brevard County, the 920 RQW is AFRC’s premier combat search and rescue (CSAR) unit. The wing consists of over 2,500 Airmen, trained and equipped to locate and recover U.S. Armed Forces personnel during both peacetime and wartime military operations.

Additional missions have included manned spaceflight support, such as providing rescue support for NASA Space Shuttle missions during that program’s operation; providing search and rescue support for civilians who are lost or in distress over land or at sea; and lending support in humanitarian and disaster relief operations with the wing’s HH-60G Pave Hawk and, until December 2019, HC-130P/N Hercules COMBAT KING aircraft.

With retirement of its last HC-130P/N, the 920 RQW transitioned to the HC-130J Hercules COMBAT KING II, with the wing’s first HC-130J arriving on 2 April 2020.

The 920 RQW was involved in the famous ‘Lone Survivor’ Operation Red Wings mission, that rescued Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell in Afghanistan and helped in the recovery operation to retrieve the remains of Luttrell’s fallen SEAL team.

Since 1956, the 920 RQW and its predecessor organizations have saved more than 3,800 lives, including 850 combat rescues and 3,000 peacetime rescues, such as the 1,043 lives the wing saved during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

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