33rd RQS wins Air Force's Verne Orr Award

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Angelique Perez
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  The 33rd Rescue Squadron was announced as the 2009 Verne Orr Award winner July 2. Established by the Air Force Association in honor of Verne Orr, a former Secretary of the Air Force, the award is presented annually and highlights any unit, regardless of size, that excelled above all others in using its people to achieve the unit's full potential and accomplish the mission.

"It's an annual award presented by the Air Force that honors a unit for the best use of their resources," said Lt. Col. Sean Choquette, 33rd RQS commander. "In other words, taking what limited people, what limited physical resources, equipment and such that you have and applying them towards the mission and accomplishing the mission. For us, that's Combat Search and Rescue."

According to Lt. Col. Choquette, the driving force behind them winning the award is the squadron's ability to provide combat capability at home station while supporting the war in the Area of Operations.

"This is not my award. This belongs to every man and woman in the squadron," he said. "Everything that we have done this year is due to the hard work of all the airmen, NCO's, and officers, the guys who step up every day as leaders and make it happen. They go out and they make decisions that can save or lose lives and they do it well because they're so well trained."

The 65-person squadron, which is comprised of aircrew, flight engineers, aerial gunners and support personnel, is divided into two flights that split and leap-frog their six-month deployments to ensure their personnel are staying fresh and sharp.

During the award time period, from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, the 33rd RQS flew over 2,500 hours in 10 aircraft, logging over 700 combat hours in 362 combat missions. They saved 130 U.S. and coalition lives, and supported classified missions that directly led to the capture, wounding, or death of 23 enemy personnel, all under enemy fire and with no coalition deaths.

Over the year, the squadron deployed twice to Afghanistan, participated in the Red Flag exercise in Alaska, and deployed to South Korea to train the ROK Air Force to conduct Combat Search and Rescue missions.

"We can support pretty much anything we're asked to do," said Lt. Col. Choquette, "from medical evacuations to combat missions transporting Navy Seals or Special Operations. We're armed; we can defend ourselves and we can defend the guy on the ground if we need to. We're the only guys in the military that do actual CSAR; the Army doesn't do it, the Navy doesn't do it, the Marines don't do it."

Capt. Thad Ronnau, an HH-60 co-pilot in the 33rd RQS who has flown in Afghanistan, Alaska and Korea, explained that the 33rd trains for all types of terrain and added that all are unique experiences, saying, "There was very valuable training to be had in Korea, whether it was the strange weather that comes off the mountains that you don't get here, the overwater flight, or the desert, low-illumination stuff that we do over there with bad weather. Then, in Alaska, we did more mountain flying similar to what you'd see in Afghanistan."

Tech. Sgt. John Durbin, the 33rd RQS' A-Flight chief, said that every mission is demanding, whether it's here or deployed and that even with low manning and a high operations tempo everyone in the squadron still gives 110 percent to support the mission.

"Our people want to get out there and do this job," said the sergeant. "Everybody is willing, ready, and able to get up there and do it. And we couldn't do what we do without having that kind of mentality - that kind of commitment to doing this mission - because everybody really takes it to heart and really believes in what we do as a unit."

The Verne Orr Award will be presented in Washington D.C. in September. It will also be permanently displayed at the Pentagon along with previous winners.