MH-53 Pave Low

In May 1980, the Air Force's newly operational fleet of nine HH-53H Pave Low combat search and rescue helicopters was abruptly transferred to special operations forces after the failed Iranian hostage rescue attempt highlighted a lack of dedicated, long-range, vertical lift platforms. Throughout the 1980s, the Pave Low fleet grew to 41 helicopters and expanded beyond the 20th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field to include the 21st and 31st Special Operations Squadrons in Europe and East Asia, as well as the 551st Special Operations Squadron at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. As the fleet expanded, the MH-53H evolved into the MH-53J, and Pave Low development culminated with the fielding of the MH-53M in the late 1990s. The crews who flew the Pave Low and the maintainers who cared for them carried out countless missions of national importance, including roles in the invasion of Panama in 1989, the first missions into Iraq in 1991 and 2003, the rescue of a downed US pilot in Iraq in 1991, the evacuation of the American Embassy in Liberia in 1996, the rescue missions for two US pilots shot down in Serbia in 1999, the longest-ever helicopter rescues at sea in the North Atlantic in 1989 and 2002, raids in Afghanistan in 2001-2002, and the seizure of strategic oil pumping facilities in Iraq in 2003. The MH-53 also flew in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom during the final seven years of its service, and tail 68-0928 flew its final mission in Iraq.

Hurlburt Field, Florida · United States