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July 1999 - The Rescuers - If a pilot goes down during Operation Southern Watch, Moody AFB will ride to the rescue.  Two squadrons from south Georgia are on permanent deployment to Southwest Asia.

May 1999 - The Storm Troopers - Air Force weather units at Fort Bragg do more than predict rain. The airborne “grey berets” tell the Army’s elite forces how best to combat the fog in war.

April 1999 - Airborne Spirit - Those people, mostly with Air Combat Command’s 18th Air Support Operations Group and Air Force Special Operations Command units, have specialized missions that support the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and other special forces at adjoining Fort Bragg. They work in a world of air assaults and infiltration — a hybrid world on the fringe of the Air Force. Their life of overnight field exercises and intense physical training, getting to work via parachute, is beyond the grasp of the typical bluesuiter.

April 1999 - A Hard Road - Combat Control School - In the early chill of a North Carolina morning, hardened warriors file down the stone path to a black marble headstone. They touch it reverently, one by one, sometimes pausing as lips form voiceless words. It’s a silent ritual, watched solemnly each day by a dozen others. Those watchers are not worthy to tread the path, but the sweat and mud dripping from them represent their dreams of doing so.

December 1998 - The Devil and the Deep Blue - Battered by a howling gale, the HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter shuddered and shimmied while it skimmed over a swirling sea that boiled like a witch’s cauldron. Inside the chopper, pararescueman Tech. Sgt. John “Mickey” Spillane stared at the bubbling broth and thought, I’m sure glad I’m up here and not down there.

November 1998 - STAR Burst - In the event of war with North Korea, Osan Air Base, South Korea, officials worry most about enemy special forces taking out the base, and preventing an allied counterattack. They figure guarding the base’s six miles of interior perimeter will take about 1,000 troops. But they have only 400 cops.

August 1998 - No Wimps Allowed - Popovich recently took part in one of the most physically demanding courses in the military – a 10-week Pararescue and Combat Control Indoctrination course at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. The task described above, called drown-proofing, is designed to increase confidence in water and teach students to react calmly and rationally in high-stress situations.