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Retirement Party for the MH-53J PAVE LOW

Posted By Blackfive

While we like to kid about the USAF at times, you will not get away with bad mouthing the 20th in our presence.  The pilots, crew chiefs, and operators have pulled our men off of mountains, jungles, deserts - mostly at night during stressful conditions.

My last ride in a PAVE LOW (MH-53J) was many years ago (first replaced by the Blackhawk version PAVE HAWK - now the Osprey).  While I will never understood why a pizza rack was part of the instrumentation, that bird (and her crew) was effective as hell.

Pave_low_hires_080820f5957s110a

A CV-22 Osprey from the 8th Special Operation Squadron, and an MH-53 Pave Low from the 20th Special Operation Squadron, fly over the coastline near Hurlburt Field, Fla., Aug. 20, 2008. The MH-53 will officially retire October 2008 and the CV-22 will be the primary workhorse to complete the Air Force Special Operations Command helicopter missions.    U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Julianne Showalter.


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August 26, 2008 • Permalink
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