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57th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron ( USAF ACC) |
We are currently working on the 57th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron history page.
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| 57 ARRS ( USAF ACC) | ||||
| Status: |
Disbanded
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| Version: | HC-130 | |||
| Role: | Search and Rescue | |||
| Tailband: | N/A | |||
| Motto: | That others might live. | |||
| Badge: | N/A | |||
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Flew the HC-130 out of Lajes Field, Azores, Portugal. Role was typically search and rescue. Often (2-3 times a week) the squadron had to fly emergency escort flights to help aircraft with failed engines over the Atlantic Ocean to Lajes Field. The 57th ARRS had a role in the Apollo program and trained for the day they might have to acturally participate in a real Apollo capsule rescue. The Navy or Coast Guard also based at Lajes would “Place” a dummy Apollo Capsule in the water somewhere in our search quadrant. Then the 57th would be scrambled to first locate the downed capsule and then drop a collar (flotation device) and PJs into the ocean to secure the capsule by attaching the collar to it. Not an easy task on a calm lake, but worse when the Atlantic was roaring. Inactivated on December 1st, 1972. Currently an associate unit, the 57th Rescue Squadron based at RAF Lakenheath, England activating in 2015. |
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C-130 Airframe Inventory
- All 57 ARRS C-130s in our C-130 Aircraft Database (past and current aircraft)
- Current 57 ARRS C-130s in our C-130 Aircraft Database
I was stationed at Lajes from 1970-8/1974.
57th ARRS was in operation the whole time I was there I'm pretty darn sure. I cannot remember a time when they weren't hauling in some poor fisherman that had been caught in a storm or drifted too far out. Their athletes, even though not a very big squadron, were competitive in all the sports we had. Everyone held them in the highest esteem. Gone in 1972? I don't think so!
BTW: Someone should remember the year the airmen and their wives waxed their 130 down and flew from McChord, WA to Maguire or Dover AFB flight/time on the East Coast and set a record for the fastest cross country flight/time. That, I'm sure was after 1972.
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