History in place

Workers mount the rotors on a new addition to Maxwell’s Air Park. The MH-53 Pave Low helicopter is scheduled to be dedicated June 8 at the park. The aircraft comes to Maxwell from the 20th Special Operations Squadron with its last mission served in Iraq. The aircraft was involved in the May, 1975 assault on Koh Tang Island following seizure of the U.S.S. Mayaguez and its crew by Cambodian Khmet Rouge forces, and was the last helicopter to leave Cambodia as it carried out the last load of Marine guards from the American embassy in Phnom Phen in Operation Eagle Pull. It is also thought to have conducted the first operational Pave Low mission of "low-level, long-range and undetected penetration into denied areas" when it rescued a priest who crashed his light aircraft on a snow-covered mesa breaking his ankle. The park was originally proposed in February, 1982 by then Air University Commander Lt. Gen. Charles Cleveland. (U.S. Air Force photo/Jamie Pitcher)