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keflavik

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Greetings! I'm a complete novice when it comes to PJs, so please bear with me. I'm doing research for a fictional, military thriller. Here's some basic questions to get started. The hypothetical scenario involves a downed F-15 pilot in hostile territory...

1. How many team members are there in a basic CSAR team?
2. What are their roles and individual equipment used?
3. If the aircraft that delivered them went down during the rescue, who on the team would radio for help? Who would they call and what would that radio speak be like?
4. Assuming a second aircraft is sent in, does the CSAR have direct contact with that aircraft?
5. When deployed on a rescue mission, does the aircraft extracting the CSAR team typically have additional air support?
6. Would a CSAR be accompanied by a STS for additional protection?
7. What communication options does a CSAR have available internally within the team, to command, other aircraft?
8. Assuming the ground team uses secure communications, is there a slang term for that radio?

Thanks,
Keflavik
 
I know some of you are chomping at the bit to answer, but ask yourself: "Am I Pararescue? Do I have a 1T2X1 AFSC?"

If you can answer "no" to any of the above, then the staff cordially invites you to post in a different thread or two.
 
Greetings! I'm a complete novice when it comes to PJs, so please bear with me. I'm doing research for a fictional, military thriller. Here's some basic questions to get started. The hypothetical scenario involves a downed F-15 pilot in hostile territory...

1. How many team members are there in a basic CSAR team?
2. What are their roles and individual equipment used?
3. If the aircraft that delivered them went down during the rescue, who on the team would radio for help? Who would they call and what would that radio speak be like?
4. Assuming a second aircraft is sent in, does the CSAR have direct contact with that aircraft?
5. When deployed on a rescue mission, does the aircraft extracting the CSAR team typically have additional air support?
6. Would a CSAR be accompanied by a STS for additional protection?
7. What communication options does a CSAR have available internally within the team, to command, other aircraft?
8. Assuming the ground team uses secure communications, is there a slang term for that radio?

Thanks,
Keflavik
Trying to be as nice as possible here-

Items 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 8 are straight up questions about a SOF element’s TTPs. We don’t discuss those openly. You were in the military- you know what OPSEC looks like.

4- sort of self explanatory. Communications and friendly force link up procedures are well developed in other open source material.

6- You don’t know what you don’t know; “STS” and “PJ” are not separate elements. Security teams (if needed or used) can be comprised of many different SOF or conventional elements.

The term “CSAR” isn’t really a thing in our circles. Personnel Recovery is a prime (but not only) mission capability of a Special Tactics team. PJs and CRO’s are PR SME’s.

BL- I don’t know how much help you’re gonna get on this one. I can count on one (maybe with an extra finger) hand how many books we have out. That’s for a reason.
 
@amlove21 , at your convenience and in another thread would you share some thoughts about the non-classified differences between PR, CSAR, and TRAP, and some of the differences between how your community would do it vs how a MEU(SOC) would do it (a la Scott O'Grady, Bosnia)? Perhaps just some definitions since there seems to be some confusion.
 
@amlove21 , at your convenience and in another thread would you share some thoughts about the non-classified differences between PR, CSAR, and TRAP, and some of the differences between how your community would do it vs how a MEU(SOC) would do it (a la Scott O'Grady, Bosnia)? Perhaps just some definitions since there seems to be some confusion.

Might not take a whole thread- if there are follow on questions we can expand.

So there isn't a "difference" per se; Personnel Recovery is a capability that all SOF forces possess (per doctrine). It's a subset of Direct Action, Pararescue is the only DoD entity specifically trained, equipped, and employed/deployed to perform that capability 100% of the time; technically all services are supposed to be able to conduct their own PR operations- TRAP, ARF (Aerial Recovery Force) comprised of specially trained Army Pathfinder units are examples of service specific teams that train to a PR mission set.

The best way that I could boil it down is this- Pararescuemen (my opinion) are best served on high risk teams at the point of injury/problem. Not just during a mass casualty or aircraft crash or whatever- but our technical rescue skills are highly useful in a myriad of different situations. High/medium/low angle traverses, leveraging airpower, coordinating assets, etc. And if that IED goes off or a helicopter goes down during a mission? You want that SME on target to get to work right away. This is how we are employing more and more today, and hopefully even more frequently in the future.

"Traditional CSAR" is a team of people, sitting near an infil platform (usually rotary wing), waiting to run out and go save the day. TRAP teams do "traditional CSAR". Scott O'Grady was "traditional CSAR". It's reactive in nature; reactive is very rarely the best way to attack a complex mission set.

"Personnel Recovery" is a full spectrum SOF centric approach; staging the appropriate asset far forward, attached to high risk teams, in order to best affect the battlespace. Jessica Lynch was "Personnel Recovery." A PJ, attached to a team, was there to provide that capability when needed (in that case in a hostage rescue direct action mission.) It's proactive in nature.

It may seem like semantics or a nuance, but it also speaks to the evaluation of Pararescue, Combat Rescue Officer and Air Force Special Tactics as a whole.
 
Just searching for TTP revealed a great deal of useful resources. Thanks! Keflavik, out.
 
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