Edmonton was one of the common stops for A-20 Boston, B-26 Marauder and especially B-25 Mitchell bombers being flown to the Soviet Union as part of the lend-lease program.

Pararescuemen (also known as PJs) are United States Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) and Air Combat Command (ACC) operatives tasked with recovery and medical treatment of personnel in humanitarian and combat environments. Crews forced to bail out or crash land faced weeks of hardship in tracing a path back to civilization, enduring harsh weather, little food, and the injuries they sustained during the crashes. World Heritage Encyclopedia™ is a registered trademark of the World Public Library Association, a non-profit organization. APJOC builds upon the skills learned at PJOC and exposes cadets to life in an operational Pararescue or Special Tactics Squadron. This course teaches how to safely escape from an aircraft that has landed in the water. It was in that year that Dr. (Captain) Leo P. Martin was trained by the U.S. Forest Service Smokejumper Parachute Training Center in Seeley Lake, Montana as the first 'para-doctor'.

Their medical and tactical skills made them invaluable for evacuation and rescue missions of this type. Phase II lasts 20 weeks and provides instruction in minor field surgery, pharmacology, combat traumamanagement, advanced airway management and military evacuation procedures. During the first months after America's entry into the War, there was very little need for air rescue. Dr. Kinney's body was not located until July of the next year. During APJOC, Both PJOC and APJOC are Civil Air Patrol National Cadet Special Activities provided by United States Air Force Pararescue.[12]. Pararescue trainees are first required to pass the Pararescue Indoctrination Course at Lackland AFB, commonly referred to as "indoc". However, it was another two decades before technology and necessity helped to create what would eventually become Air Force Pararescue. The Air Force's scope of operations became so large that demand for Pararescue teams expanded as well. Graduation of this course is the “ticket to ride the pipeline” and begin learning the special skills that make PJs highly regarded special operators. Known as "Blackie's Gang" and flying out of Chabua, India, they were equipped with two C-47 aircraft. Early operations were comical, but in early 1943 May sent two volunteers, Owen Hargreaves and Scotty Thompson to the smoke jumpers school in Missoula, Montana to be trained by the U.S. Forest Service.

Even so, there were developments in critical technologies. The course teaches CAP cadets fundamental survival and rescue skills such as shelter building, land navigation, and rock climbing. One of their first rescue missions was the recovery of twenty people who had bailed out of a stricken C-46 in August 1943 in the Naga area of Burma; an area that contained not just Japanese troops, but tribes of head hunters as well.

This includes instruction of principles, procedures, equipment and techniques that help individuals to survive, regardless of climatic conditions or unfriendly environments, and return home. This course includes ground operations week, tower week, and "jump week" when participants make five parachute jumps. Your email address will not be published. Dominating the flying in the CBI was 'The Hump' route: cargo flights that left India carrying thousands of tons of vital war supplies had to cross the spine of the Himalayas to reach their destinations in China. 'Doc' Holliday parachuted out of an OA-10 Catalina into the Nicaraguan jungle to aid a crewmember who had parachuted from a crippled B-17 Flying Fortress. Part of the little-known Air Force Special Operations community[5] and long an enlisted preserve, the Pararescue service began commissioning Combat Rescue Officers early in the 21st century. Once a Pararescueman has completed the pipeline, he is assigned to a Rescue or Special Tactics team where he will receive informal on-the-job training.

By 1950, the unification of all the formerly independent Air Rescue Squadrons under the umbrella of the Air Rescue Service was complete. On 21 December, the "Clobbered Turkey" hit a mountain and when the wreck was spotted on the 27th, Medical Corps 1st Lieutenant Albert C. Kinney, First Sergeant Santhell A. London, premier Army Air Forces cold weather expert and T-5 Leon J. Casey—none of whom were trained Pararescuemen—volunteered to jump onto the crash site, located 95 miles north of Nome. Each student undertakes a minimum of 30 free fall jumps including two day and two night jumps with supplemental oxygen, rucksack and load-bearing equipment. One of the key new concepts was rescue of stranded personnel from behind enemy lines. Students learn the basic parachuting skills required to infiltrate an objective area by static line airdrop. Pararescue personnel were part of these packages to provide medical assistance for injured aircrew as well as the ability to patrol for missing aircrew that might have been unconscious or dead.

With Canada's entry into WWII in 1939, former Canadian fighter ace Wop May was put in charge of training operations and took over command at the No 2 Air Observer School in Edmonton, Alberta. In the area around an air base, the air base commander had search and rescue jurisdiction through the Local Base Rescue (LBR) helicopter units. Soon the unit was conducting operational jumps, and by 1944 May's persistence had paid off and an official para-rescue training program started. Porter was killed on a rescue mission when his B-25 was shot down. Soon the unit was conducting operational jumps, and by 1944 May's persistence had paid off and an official para-rescue training program started.