USAF Patch Rescue b 66 RQS Rescue Squadron MH 60 Pave Hawk Nellis AFB

USAF Patch 66 RQS Rescue Squadron MH 60 Pave Hawk CSAR 2003 Nellis AFB Nevada Deployed Fully embroidered cut edge 88mm by 81mm three and one half inches by three and three sixteenth inches.

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History 

66 Air Rescue Squadron was activated on 14 November 1952 at RAF Manston England equipped with SA 16 Albatross amphibious flying boats and C 82 Packet fixed wing aircraft and SH 19 Chickasaw helicopters assigned to 9 Air Rescue Group attached to HQ United States Air Forces in Europe to provide local search and rescue SAR medical evacuation and disaster relief. The Squadron retired its C 82 Packet aircraft in 1953 and was attached to Third Air Force on 15 November 1953 and attached back to HQ USAFE on 1 August 1954. 66 ARS was inactivated on 18 Jan 1958.

The Squadron reactivated as 66 Rescue Squadron RQS on 1 January 1991 at Nellis AFB Nevada equipped with MH 60G Pave Hawk rescue helicopters assigned to Air Rescue Service to provide rapidly deployable combat search and rescue CSAR forces to theater worldwide and conduct peacetime search and rescue in support of the National Search and Rescue Plan and HH 60G support to the USAF Warfare Center and USAF Weapons School at Nellis AFB including operational test missions and rescue support for air operations over the Nellis Range Complex.

66 RQS was deployed to Kuwait City Kuwait on 25 January 1993 attached to 4404 Operations Group Provisional to support USAF operations to ensure Iraqs compliance with United Nations treaty terms following Operation Desert Storm. The Squadron was reassigned to 57 Operations Group on 1 February 1993 remaining attached to 4404 OGP returning to Nellis AFB on 5 July 1993. The Squadron regularly deployed to South East Asia during the 1990s to provide CSAR support for Operations Northern and Southern Watch although a crash investigation in 1998 concluded that the Squadron was stressed out by constant combat deployments without adequate rest.

The Squadron operations maintenance and pararescue personnel combined as 66 Expeditionary Rescue Squadron ERQS to deployed to South Central Asia in December 2001 for Operation Enduring Freedom OEF providing CSAR support for the invasion of Afghanistan in March 2002 following the Al Qaida attacks on 11 September 2001. The Squadrons Pararescuemen PJs were formed into 58 Rescue Squadron RQS on 14 June 2002.

66 ERQS detached again to support Operation Iraqi Freedom OIF in 2003 deploying to a classified location and moving continually forward to four austere forward operating locations. The Squadron was the first USAF flying unit operating at Baghdad International Airport and the Nellis Rescue Team conducted the first combat recovery of a downed fighter crew by a conventional CSAR unit since the Vietnam War. The Squadron was reassigned to 563 Rescue Group on 1 October 2003. The Squadron continued expeditionary deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan with combat missions earning 2 Silver Stars 5 Bronze Stars and 25 Distinguished Flying Crosses and despite the extremely high operations tempo met all of its operational taskings during the two major contingencies.

66 Rescue Squadron has been stood up the first ever Global Response Force in 2015 and deployed in support of Operation Freedoms Sentinel the new phase of operations in Afghanistan following the ending of the combat mission.

This patch dates from 2003.