As the US Air Force’s fifth-largest installation, Kirtland Air Force Base’s economic impact is significant, making up more than 10% of the Albuquerque economy and accounting for 13% of local jobs.
We spoke to Captain Jack O’Neill at Kirtland, an instructor pilot with more than 1000 flight hours with the United States Air Force. He attended Kansas State University and studied political science, aerospace and leadership studies. He currently teaches the 512th Rescue Squadron at Kirtland Air Force Base. The student flight commander teaches his pilots how to fly a combat rescue helicopter called the HH-60W Jolly Green. O’Neill’s students are trained and ready to handle flying into combat in any hostile region. Rescue missions are not a new concept to O’Neill.
As a child he worked for seven years as a lifeguard and feels he was always called to that type of mission. Now he trains future pilots how to handle personnel recovery as well as combat search and rescue missions. O’Neill was commissioned through the ROTC while attending college and receiving his Bachelor of Science in political science. He completed his undergrad pilot training at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma. He says,” I fell in love with the crew coordination and flying in formation. I saw two options… fly fighters or fly helicopters.” Typically, airmen are assigned jets based on air crew and serviceability. O’Neill liked the idea of having a helicopter to call his own.
O’Neill moved to Fort Rucker in Alabama. He graduated and scored high enough to get into the rescue community and fly modified Blackhawk helicopters. Now as student Flight Commander he manages over 100 students at Kirtland. He has flown the T-6, TH-1, and the HH 60G helicopters. He was also one of the first to train on the HH-60W and bring the new aircraft online for the Air Force.
He says none of the missions are the same. “You have to think outside the box.” In 2017 his commander asked, “Do you want to go to Africa? O’Neill said, “Yes, absolutely, we all want to get that first deployment.” O’Neill’s wife, who is also a Captain and weapons instructor, was excited for him as well. Being in similar positions they speak the same language and understand the demands of the job.
In Feb. 2018 he deployed to the Horn of Africa, a conflict-prone region, located in Northeastern Africa. During this mission O’Neill was working on mission coordination. He worked on the ground to air request, launched the crew, and coordinated the transfer of patients from the helicopter to surgery. Crews were alerted to scramble a nine-line casualty evacuation. A nine line is an emergency evacuation request and can often make the difference between life and death for wounded soldiers.” It was the most severe alert… an immediate scramble.” O’Neill says, “We are their emergency help.” That was especially true on this day. “We were ready to go and help people.” Four Americans were injured. This was just the beginning of O’Neill’s lifesaving missions. O’Neill was promoted to Captain in September of 2018.
O’Neill says the main duties on a mission are to get the data, create a tactical game plan, infiltrate through enemy territory, and “go where the fight is and pick the people up. “The goal is to look at the overall threat, avoid it ideally, and reduce the risk.” O’Neill says, “We are the emergency button that people hit. They need a lifeline. We are here so your worst day is not your last day and I think that is a worthy cause.”
O’Neill [OJWCUA5R1] was sent back to the Horn of Africa in 2019 “this time I got to fly on the formation. We had a mass causality event with an explosive device and 9 injuries. Our standard operation is to fly with two helicopters, but because of the severity, we launched a third helicopter.” O’Neill says, “Speed is the key. They call it the golden hour. If we can get an injured person help within an hour, we can save their life.” On that deployment, the crew was attacked with 120-millimeter mortar. “We hid on the other side of a barrier and ran from that bunker into the next one. Running through that was the scariest and coolest thing I’ve ever done, and I never want to do that again.” He earned his callsign “Sparrow” after the mortar attack on his second deployment in 2019.
Rescue pilots fly domestically and internationally helping fellow military personnel and civilians or aiding in disaster relief. Last year O’Neill helped transfer a terminal cancer patient who was not going to make it through the night. He needed to be transferred quickly from Georgia to a specialty hospital in Florida. Logistical planning is always a key part of every rescue mission. Most hospital helipads aren’t rated for military aircraft, so O’Neill strategically landed at a soccer field in South Georgia using two Para rescue personnel and a flight doctor on board. O’Neill says, “We found through the satellite another soccer field in Tampa to land on. In September in the South there are a lot of afternoon thunderstorms, so we were trying to beat the storms. We landed, picked up the patient, and transferred the patient to the hospital. Five or ten minutes later we might have been stuck in Tampa for the night. The patient was stable and doing significantly better.”
The Air Force is the only organization in the military with dedicated rescue units. O’Neill also prepared deployment equipment as the acting chief of mobility for residents from Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas. In 2019, Dorian caused catastrophic damage to the northwestern Bahamas. “The devastation was so bad from the hurricane they could not support any rescue operations.” “We operate in a triad…the rescue triad. What makes it so good is that we have medical, aerial refueling, and we can fly where other helicopters can’t,” says O’Neill.
Today O’Neill helps with mostly civilian rescues and enjoys teaching his students to do what he loves best. O’Neill especially likes to see their reaction when they finally understand a concept and when they experience their first flight. “I remember it from my first flight looking down and seeing a shadow of the 60 helicopter from the air.”
Captain O’Neill says the Air Force motto is the standard when it comes to saving lives. He says, “Our motto is: These things we do, that others may live… and we hold that to our core.”
[OJWCUA5R1]Mispelled, O'Neill (2x L)
“Speed is the key. They call it the golden hour. If we can get an injured person help within an hour, we can save their life.”