57th Rescue Squadron
The 57th Rescue Squadron is part of the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano Air Base, Italy. The squadron recently moved to Italy from the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath, England. As part of the 31st Operations Group it conducts pararescue operations in support of higher command directives, at times utilizing HH-60G Pave Hawk and Lockheed HC-130 Hercules aircraft. The 57th Rescue Squadron is a combat-ready squadron of pararescue personnel capable of performing combat rescue and personnel retrieval missions in theaters of operations worldwide. Mission. The 57th Rescue Squadron is a combat-ready search and  rescue squadron composed of USAF Pararescue and Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape personnel, capable of executing all-weather search and rescue missions day or night in hostile environments in support of USAFE, USEUCOM, and NATO operations. It employs advanced search and rescue equipment. The squadron is capable of deploying to any theater of operations in the world. History. The squadron was first activated at Lajes Field in the Azores in November 1952 as the 57th Air Rescue Squadron in a reorganization of Air Rescue Service. The 7th Air Rescue Squadron at Wheelus Field, Libya was expanded into a group and  each of its remotely stationed lettered flights was replaced by a new squadron. The 57th replaced Flight B of the 7th Squadron and assumed its personnel and equipment. The squadron mission was to intercept aircraft in distress while crossing the Atlantic and to escort them back to Lajes Field. The 57th also provided search and rescue for both downed aircraft and for ships. One of the squadron's most notable achievements occurred in 1959, when a Portuguese ship, the SS Arnel, which had struck rocks near the island of Santa Maria. The squadron evacuated 48 persons from the Arnel. By  the early 1960s the squadron had assumed the mission of providing support for Project Gemini and Project Apollo space missions. To reflect this mission, it was renamed the 57th Air Recovery Squadron in July 1965. The following January Air Rescue Service became Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service and all of its squadrons were renamed, no matter their mission. The squadron was inactivated at Lajes in late 1972, when the Portuguese Air Force assumed the mid-Atlantic rescue mission. The 57th was reactivated as the 57th Rescue Squadron at Lakenheath in February 2015. Personnel for the squadron came from the 56th  Rescue Squadron, with no additional manpower or aircraft. Aircrews and the HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters remained in the 56th Squadron. The separation of pararescue airmen into a separate unit "align[ed] the personnel recovery function within United States Air Forces Europe to the standard Air Force structure," officials said. Creating two rescue squadrons at Lakenheath is intended to replicate combat conditions because pararescumen frequently deploy separately from their rescue helicopters and planes. The 56th was the last squadron in the Air Force to split its pararescue and flying functions into two squadrons.