Man figured out how to fly.

Then he left it up to Air Force pararescue jumpers to figure out how to rescue him from the jungle, the ocean, the mountains and hostile territory when a plane crashes.

The need for a highly trained rescue force was highlighted in 1943. In a rescue famous in pararescue lore, a parachute drop of medical corpsmen saved the lives of passengers who bailed out of a disabled C-46 over the China-Burma border. One of the high profile passengers was newsman Eric Sevareid, who foreshadowed the future pararescuemen with his comment about the rescuers.

“Gallant is a precious word. They deserve it.”

The concept of a military rescue team trained to parachute into and bring the lost, injured and ill out of otherwise inaccessible areas on land and sea, trained in field medicine, survival and combat, has evolved rapidly since World War II.

With every heroic rescue in war and peace since that rescue, sacrifices have been made, to which the wall of honor in the pararescue school administration building attests. It is lined with a Medal of Honor, 11 Air Force Crosses and others so many that they can’t all be displayed.

Today, the Guardian Angel Weapons System consists of pararescuemen, combat rescue officers and survival evasion resistance escape instructors. The pararescuemen are an elite group with what Master Sgt. Ramon Colon-Lopez, director of training of the U.S. Air Force PJ/CRO school here, calls a noble and rewarding mission.

“Our job is to save lives,” he said.

Becoming a pararescueman takes about 19 months. A recruit must be male and a volunteer. If recruits pass the physical test they move on to the pararescue indoctrination course at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, which Sergeant Colon-Lopez says eliminates thousands.

The washout rate for this course, which gives the fundamentals upon which all the following, highly specific skills are built is about 90 percent, said Capt. Matthew Burg, pararescue school CRO director of operations. It not only tests the recruit’s physical capabilities, but his ability to endure mental and emotional stress and his commitment to becoming a pararescueman.

Next are six schools, which include basic airborne with the Army, special forces combat diver training and national registry emergency medical technician/paramedic training.

The PJ/CRO school here is the place where skills are taken to the highest level and everything learned previously comes together in practical application for 66 weeks of intensive training with Kirtland as home base.

The pass rate for this school is 99 percent, Sergeant Colon-Lopez said.

“By the time they get here, they’re prepared. Very seldom do you see a guy who says ‘I quit’ here,” he said.

Pararescue has historically been a small career field, but demand has been increasing steadily said Sergeant Colon-Lopez.

“The Department of Defense has spread its assets over Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq. Every commander wants that capability. ‘Where are my PJs?’ they’re saying,” he said.

In response to that increased demand and the aging facilities here, the pararescue school is slated for a new campus of 57 total acres that will encompass everything from dormitories to a state of the art surgical skills training facility and a PJ/CRO urban training area.

The most important thing to know about pararescuemen is not their history. It isn’t that they are as well trained and physically fit as it’s possible to be.

Sergeant Colon-Lopez and anyone else associated with the pararescuemen would say that the most important thing is that they are -- each and every one -- willing to make the ultimate sacrifice that others may live.

That others may live. The motto says it all for the pararescuemen of the Air Force.