Rescue unit vets return for reunion

Nearly 25 years after their unit left Mountain Home Air Force Base, veterans of a former air rescue unit return here Friday to rekindle old ties as part of a reunion celebration.

The three-day event reunites members of Detachment 22 with the Air Force's former Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron organization.

Based in Mountain Home from the mid-1960s to mid-1980s, the detachment performed search and rescue missions across southern Idaho and adjoining sections of Nevada and Oregon. It served here before professional lifesaving air ambulance and helicopter services became available, according to Mike Curtis, a spokesperson with the reunion committee.

"Helicopter aircrews, maintenance folks, firefighters and medics were credited with saving many lives and aiding the sick and injured within a vast geographical expanse covering adverse terrain, challenging weather conditions and remote wilderness areas," Curtis said.

"It was common within the air rescue community for airmen and families assigned to Mountain Home to declare this duty as the most rewarding work of their careers," he added. Whether it involved finding lost skiers, hunters and children or providing emergency medical care and hospital transport for injured loggers and accident victims, the detachment's airmen voluntarily jumped in to get the job done.

Conceived and organized by Dan Turlington of Tacoma, Wash., the reunion is expected to include at least 40 detachment alumni from across the United States. Helping organize the event locally include former detachment members Al and Kara Wormsbecker and Mike and Carole Curtis, who remained in Mountain Home after the detachment inactivated here.

Information on the detachment's history, including newspaper articles and lists of assigned personnel, is available online at www.det22airrescue.com.

For more information on the reunion, call Mike or Carole Curtis at 580-0305.