Former PJ teaches new generation of pararescuemen

Published June 9, 2009
By Mike Joseph
37th Training Wing Public Affairs

LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFNS) -- The insignia on the pararescue instructor's shirt, semicircled below a red, white and blue angel, says it all: That Others May Live.

It's a motto he loves. It's a motto he lived up to.

A retired pararescueman, Maj. Thomas Newman is now on the other side of the line, teaching and sharing his experiences and knowledge with young men trying to become part of the elite Air Force unit .

A fit and trim man who looks ready for a return to active duty, Mr. Newman came back to Lackland three and a half years ago to instruct Airmen after serving in the private sector following his retirement from the Air Force.

"It's where my heart is," he said. "I say I've come full circle, my wife says I'm regressing."

The circle began in 1965, when Mr. Newman was 18 years old. He was a high school dropout and decided to take care of his military obligation before he was drafted.

When told by a civilian career counselor at Lackland what he was going to be doing, Mr. Newman said he wanted something different from what he was being told.

"Someone walked by and said something about jumping out of planes," Mr. Newman said. "I asked what the guy was talking about. The counselor looked back at me and told me I'd never make it, I was too skinny. That was all I needed."

That comment began a career in pararescue that turned into a lifetime of commitment. After completing his training, Mr. Newman volunteered for active duty in Vietnam but was assigned to Guam. When that assignment was completed, he volunteered again for Vietnam and was assigned to a base in Thailand and his unit was responsible for areas in North Vietnam and Laos.

"It was a combat zone and I was TDY all the time," he said. "It was an exciting time, a time when I felt like I was where I wanted and needed to be."

What followed was an act of heroism that earned him the Air Force Cross. He volunteered to go on a mission to rescue a downed Air Force pilot who was in a hostile Vietnam jungle. Hampered by darkness and under enemy fire, then Sergeant Newman descended into the jungle, sent the rescue helicopter to a nearby orbit for the crew's safety and when it returned, he secured the injured pilot and protected him with his own body as they ascended to the helicopter.

"When you're there every day, you show up for work and you're ready to do whatever is necessary when called upon because you don't know what you're going to get called into," he said. "When you're going after someone else whose life is danger, whose life is at stake of possibly being captured and made a prisoner, the effort is worth it.

"You're willing to take your chances to accomplish that," Mr. Newman said. "The award itself is 100 percent total accident based on what transpires over that time. I was doing what I was trained to do, what I was supposed to do. It's an honor, of course, and I feel honored."

In addition to his Air Force Cross, Mr. Newman's name appears on the Enlisted Heroes Walk dedicated last December at the parade grounds. All basic military trainees pass over the Enlisted Heroes Walk during their graduation ceremony.

"When I saw it (his name on the brick), it took me back a little bit," he said. "I had a sense of pride. It wasn't about my name being there, it was about the people on the walk.

"The majority of them (walk names) are pararescuemen who I knew and worked with, and I know the quality of their service," Mr. Newman said. "Some of them aren't around anymore and I'm extremely proud just to have my name counted with them, especially when you know them and know what they did."

But another story perhaps summarizes the job of a pararescueman.

"We made the first night sea jump in pararescue history to a merchant marine vessel in the Pacific," Mr. Newman said. "I was looking down on this man (who had been rescued) when he became conscious. He realized that he had come very close to death. You could see the gratitude on his face, an understanding that didn't take any words. That kind of helped me realize what this job is about."

Mr. Newman said once a person goes through pararescue there is always a bond among others in that career field, a connection that is never severed unless it is voluntarily cut. There's automatic acceptance and respect because all PJs have gone through the same things, met the same standards and in one way or another performed the mission.

"Once a PJ, always a PJ," he said.

The course he helps instruct at Lackland is pararescue and combat recovery officer indoctrination. It's the foundation to becoming a PJ and the first step to other required courses, including combat dive, airborne parachuting, free fall, survival, paramedic and finally pararescue. It's a process that can take up to two and a half years to complete.

"This is just a gateway," Mr. Newman said. "If they can't get through this course, they can't start training. This course prepares them for the training pipeline and the specialties once they've completed it."

One of the concerns he had about joining the staff was whether or not what he experienced was relative in today's world. He's found that the mission, principles, environment and combat have not changed; only technology has.

"I'm a line instructor just like everyone else; I'm not in some little alcove," Mr. Newman said. "As long as I feel I'm not slowing things down, that I still have something to bring to the table that's valuable, I'll still do it."

That means future students can continue to draw knowledge from a man who not only wears the insignia, but by his actionsexemplifies the pararescue motto, "That others may live."