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

PUBLIC SERVICE SPOTLIGHT

BREVARD COUNTY • PATRICK SPACE FORCE BASE, FLORIDA – The 920th Rescue Wing announced the outstanding Airmen of the second 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 – Airman First Class Kayla Garcia, 920th Force Support Squadron

■ Noncommissioned Officer – Tech. Sgt. Ryan Clemons, 920th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron

■ Senior Noncommissioned Officer – Master Sgt. Patrick Norton, 39th Rescue Squadron

■ Company Grade Officer – Capt. Rory Whipple, 308th Rescue Squadron

■ Field Grade Officer – Maj. Christopher Creveling, 39th Rescue Squadron

■ Civilian – Mr. Joseph Dandeneau, 920th Finance Office Budget Analyst

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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