Search and Rescue in Southeast Asia 1961-1975.
Abstract
The usefulness of search and rescue task forces in future conflicts will be determined by such factors as the geographic and demographic nature of the battlefield and, of course, enemy defenses. It is questionable that an armada of HH-53s, A-7s, HC-130s and forward air controllers would be able to operate in the highly defended, relatively open areas of Europe, over the flat sands of the Middle East, or above the barren hills of Korea. A future enemy could possess technologically advanced air defenses including modern jet fighters able to detect and destroy aircraft flying at low altitudes, the SA-3, SA-6, SA-11, and a host of smaller, hand-held missiles like the SA-7, and the deadly ZSU-23-4 radar-directed, fully-mobile antiaircraft gun. These weapons would prove vastly more formidable than those in the 1950s vintage air defense system the Air Force faced in North Vietnam. The Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service was ultimately successful in Southeast Asia in saving 3,883 human beings from death, suffering, or captivity because innovation and imagination brought rescue from the SA-16/HC-54 era to the search and rescue task force of the late 1960s. Imagination and innovation within a system receptive to change brought improvement through the introduction of novel tactics and new equipment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1975
- Accession Number
- ADA114903
Entities
People
- Earl H. Tilford Jr.