Combat search and rescue
Videos
Combat search and rescue (CSAR) are search and rescue operations that are carried out during war that are within or near combat zones.
An HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter comes in for a landing during a combat rescue training exercise.
Richard Bell-Davies conducted the first combat S&R mission in his aircraft during the First World War.
A Sikorsky HH-53B refueling during the Vietnam War.
Pararescuemen return with a downed pilot from a successful rescue mission in southern Iraq (2003).
Rescue of Bat 21 Bravo
Videos
The rescue of Bat 21 Bravo, the call sign for Iceal "Gene" Hambleton, a navigator aboard an EB-66 aircraft shot down behind North Vietnamese lines, was the "largest, longest, and most complex search-and-rescue" operation during the Vietnam War. Five additional aircraft were shot down during rescue attempts, directly resulting in the deaths of 11 airmen, the capture of two others, and another airman trying to evade capture.
A 42nd TEWS Douglas EB-66E Destroyer at Takhli, Thailand.
North Vietnamese personnel scramble to ready an SA-2 missile to engage American aircraft.
An O-2A Skymaster over Laos, 1970.