My specific job as a Pararescue Specialist was to penetrate an incident site usually by parachute and recover personnel and or equipment.  As such, I was trained in a variety of skills including parachuting, Medical Training, SCUBA diving, Mountain Climbing, Sea Survival, Arctic Survival, desert Survival, Jungle Survival, Mountain operations, and a variety of other skills including the application of a flotation collar around the Gemini and Apollo spacecraft.  If you were to watch the James Bond movie, “Thunderball”, toward the end you would see us in operation with the parachute scene.

Our mission was air rescue of downed pilots or anyone else for that matter and also spacecraft recovery.  The Gemini and Apollo Spacecraft would normally be recovered by the US Navy if it came down in the primary recovery area.  If it landed anywhere else we were responsible for the recovery as such during a spacecraft shot, we would be positioned around the world.  I personally was in Mauritius Island and Dakar Senegal during these shots.

Our primary aircraft were fixed-winged, HU-16 B Grumman Albatross, and amphibian aircraft, HC-97G, a military version of the Boeing Stratoliner, which was replaced by the HC-130E Lockheed Hercules.  We also had HH-43B Kaman Huskie (call sign Pedro) , a helicopter that was used for local base rescue.  We rarely were on them as PJ’s.

As a child of a military father I was raised overseas and thus was used to living in a foreign country, and took to Libya like a duck to water.  The culture and the people fascinated me.  The sad thing was many young airmen would refer to Wheelus as “The Crotch of the Air Force”, and never left the base during their entire time there and just complained...  How tragic they missed an opportunity to visit a fascinating city, not to mention ancient Roman ruins at Leptis Magna, which was essentially untouched by tourists.   

Whilst at Wheelus, I traveled all over Europe, Africa, and the Middle East on special missions.  Many of our flights were 14-hour flights as precautionary orbits for special missions.  I essentially had no crew duties on board and was only there if in the event something happened.  I discovered I could not spend 14 hours sleeping in a crew bunk so to break the monotony I would bring groceries on board and cook a gourmet meal for the rest of the crew.  Needless to say, I was very popular.

I have a curious and inquisitive nature so was naturally drawn to Islam. I had lived in Spain as a child and there was an Arab (Moor) influence there especially in the architecture and culture.  I also have a passion for history.  I wanted to learn more about the Muslim culture and its history, especially in Libya.  I could not read Arabic and could only speak a few phrases, so I read a translation of the Quran and found it not dissimilar to our own Bible.  Both share the first five books of the Bible.  I not only left the base as often as I could, but I had a small flat downtown that I would stay at occasionally. There was so much history there not only during WWII, but the incarceration of American seamen from the Frigate Philadelphia and its subsequent sinking by an attack by Stephen Decatur which would make today's Navy SEALs proud, and that it was the breadbasket of the Roman Empire whose ruins at Leptis Magna can still be seen today.