321st STS Airman explains how life of a PJ is more than jumping out of airplanes

Published May 6, 2010
By Tech. Sgt. Marelise Wood
352nd Special Operations Group Public Affairs

RAF MILDENHALL, England -- "I know 'PJs' jump out of planes and stuff, but what do you guys really do?"

That is the question Staff Sgt. Michael Lauria, 321st Special Tactics Squadron, has heard more times than he can count, so he chose to help demystify the world of pararescue to an audience at the Galaxy Club during a Warrior Stories event recently.

Warrior Stories is an event held once a month which provides a platform for Airmen to share their deployment stories. Each month, three servicemembers are given the opportunity to brief.

Sergeant Lauria was deployed in late November 2009 to Iraq. Before sharing his deployment experience, he gave the audience a general idea of what being a pararescueman entails.

"First and foremost, we provide what we call direct-action combat search and rescue support," said Sergeant Lauria. "We also provide direct-action medical support and perform noncombatant evacuation operations.

"In order to execute these missions, we bring a fairly specialized skill set to the fight," he added. "We're all trained in special weapons and tactics. We all hold advanced medical certifications. We're all rated aircrew members and parachutists, and we've all been to combat dive school. We're trained in a variety of rescue disciplines to include high-angle and mountain rescues, as well as rescue from confined spaces and collapsed structures."

Sergeant Lauria's training made him confident as he headed out on the mission that was the highlight of his deployment.

"On (Sept. 19) at about (8 p.m.) we were developing training when one of the team leaders came in and said there was a CV-22 [Osprey] that had a hard landing," he said. "So we got all of our equipment and were throwing everything in our trucks when they came running back and said it wasn't actually a CV-22, it was an Army helicopter that had crashed.

"An Army helicopter was inbound from Baghdad when a sandstorm whipped up just as they were coming down to Balad. They tried to make an emergency landing; however, they were short of the fence by about 25 meters, clipped the rotors on the fence, and went over headfirst into the ground. It rolled about 150 meters, throwing people who were in the aircraft out and causing some serious injuries.

"We responded and found out there were 13 patients on board," he continued. "The pilot was totally fine and was able to explain to us what happened. Sadly, one of the patients we triaged died of his injuries leaving us with 11 patients who were critically injured.

"We triaged all the patients and began treating the most critically injured patients first, at which point we were re-tasked," he explained. "We found out that there were a couple of people trapped inside the aircraft, and our job was to extricate them from the cabin. Another teammate and I went up to the helicopter and found that the flight engineer's leg was caught outside the aircraft.

"Imagine him straddling the window, his body was inside and his left leg was outside. The aircraft had rolled over and crushed his left leg, possibly multiple times, and now the entire hulk was resting on his leg. So if you can imagine him, the aircraft is lying on its right side, his left leg is out the window pinned under the entire aircraft, and he's kind of tucked in there amongst a bunch of scrap metal."

"We had to treat and stabilize him before we moved him," Sergeant Lauria said. "We then had to lift the entire aircraft hulk off his leg. We used the Jaws of Life and some heavy lift bags to lift the whole thing up, pull his leg from under the aircraft, and bring him into the cabin where we further treated and stabilized him."

Not too long after the completion of this mission, Sergeant Lauria and his team received good news.

"We found out about 48 hours later, to our elation, that the 12 people who had survived the impact of the landing, actually went on to survive," he said. "That was not only very fulfilling for us, but we also learned a lot from the experience and a number of very extensive after action reports came out of it."

Sergeant Lauria's presentation was followed by Senior Master Sgt. Kevin Hawks, 100th Logistics Readiness Squadron First Sergeant, and Maj. James Lovewell, 100th LRS Commander.

"Warrior Stories" is held monthly. Anyone interested in sharing his or her personal story should contact their unit's First Sergeant.