Back when I was learning to fly Air Force equipment the local base rescue helicopter had the call sign PEDRO. Apparently that call sign has been reactivated for the Search and Rescue helicopters in Afghanistan.
Here is a short article by that intrepid free lance reporter, Michael Yon, with lots of photographs.
Regards — Cliff
The Kaman HH43B was the PEDRO. It was a dual purpose aircraft that the AF used primarily for local crash rescue ops. In the local configuration, a special fire bottle was sling loaded beneath the aircraft. Manning the backend of the PEDRO were a local firefighter and a designated "rescue" person, most often another firefighter who had special training. PJ's were too high value to assign to each AFB for non-combat ops.
ReplyDeletePEDRO had huge clamshell doors on the back end of the fuselage such that crews could carry a litter right up to the back end of the compartment and slide it in.
To my knowledge, only the HH43B ops used PEDRO as a call sign. The CSAR ops that employed HH3 or HH53 aircraft all used JOLLY as the call sign.
It isn't clear who revived the PEDRO call sign for use in medivac ops in Afghanistan. CSAR continues to operate under a different call sign, often assigned by mission package.
Regards,
Neal