GEN Goldfein Rescue, 19 years later

amlove21

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This article is a little dated, but still awesome.

Only half the team is pictured, the other half included another SrA that went on to be a Chief. Great story and piece of history.

From the article...

How do you thank the people who saved your life? If you’re Gen. David L. Goldfein, the newly confirmed Air Force chief of staff, you send them a bottle of single-malt Scotch every year. Goldfein also makes a point of staying in touch with the men who risked their lives to rescue him after he was shot down over Serbia on May 2, 1999.

How do you thank the people who saved your life?

If you’re Gen. David L. Goldfein, the newly confirmed Air Force chief of staff, you send them a bottle of single-malt Scotch every year. Goldfein also makes a point of staying in touch with the men who risked their lives to rescue him after he was shot down over Serbia on May 2, 1999.

One of those men is retired Chief Master Sgt. Jeremy Hardy, a Navarre resident who was the leader of the Special Tactics rescue team that plucked Goldfein from an open field as enemy forces were closing in.

At the time he was shot down, Goldfein was the commander of a squadron that was taking part in the air war against the forces of Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic. He was piloting an F-16 when his jet was struck by a surface-to- air missile.

At that same time, Hardy and his teammates were in a tent at their forward staging base in Bosnia, where they were on standby in case a pilot needed rescuing. After receiving word of Goldfein’s mayday call, Hardy and his teammates launched three helicopters and set out to find the downed pilot.

Ordinarily, special operators prefer to work under the cover of darkness. On this night, however, there were no clouds in the sky and a full moon.

“As we were crossing the border between Bosnia and Serbia, the Serbians launched three missiles at us,” Hardy said. “We were the third helicopter in the formation, and the last missile actually flew between the second helicopter and ours. It was pretty surreal, wearing night vision goggles and seeing that missile come at us and just miss us by a few meters.”

The helicopter crews also had to contend with sporadic anti-aircraft fire throughout the duration of the flight. As they flew around in circles, trying to locate Goldfein, the crews could see lights come on in farmhouses below.


“It was a pretty vulnerable feeling,” Hardy said. “We were flying very low, very fast, and our helicopter was strafed with small arms fire.”

After picking up a signal from Goldfein’s emergency strobe, Hardy’s helicopter broke formation and made radio contact with him.



We found a clearing and landed,” Hardy said. “We knew that a large percentage of clearings in that area were mine fields, which became a concern after the fact.”

Hardy, another Pararescueman and a combat controller exited the helicopter. While the other crew members took up security positions, Hardy ran up and made contact with Goldfein.

“We started taking fire in the landing zone,” Hardy recalled. “It felt like someone was hitting the ground with a hammer around us. It was small arms fire coming from the Serbians who were chasing ... Goldfein.”

Hardy grabbed Goldfein and got him back to the helicopter, where the team members piled on top of the pilot.

“We were wearing body armor and he wasn’t,” Hardy said matter-of- factly. “We didn’t want incoming fire to hit him.”


The helicopter pilot took off as quickly as he could, dodging barrages of incoming fire as the pararescuemen examined Goldfein for injuries.

“It was a pretty wild ride back to Bosnia,” Hardy said with a chuckle. “But within 24 hours, he was back up and flying again.”

Over the years, Goldfein and Hardy have remained close. In 2011, Goldfein officiated at Hardy’s promotion ceremony when he became a chief master sergeant. In 2015, the general officiated at Hardy’s retirement ceremony.

“I was fortunate enough to be at the ceremony when he became a four star general,” Hardy said. “We got to spend a week with his family, which was really nice.”

Hardy is confident that the same attributes that made Goldfein an outstanding fighter pilot will serve him well as the Air Force’s chief of staff.

“He is uniquely genuine,” Hardy said. “He’s not as guarded and political as a lot of generals I’ve encountered. He has a big heart for his airmen, and he shows it. He’s already proven his capacity to excel, even in the most dire circumstances.”
 
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