REGISTRATION is here...
The AIG, June 23, 2021Reunion / Rodeo
USE THIS LINK TO RESERVE YOUR ROOM NOW
Best to do online
If you have to call, use Pararescue 2021 when calling 520-792-3500, #1
"Once a PJ, Always a PJ"
"Please share with your network so everyone is signed up for the AIG, we are stronger in numbers"
With anything, there were a few glitches for the first run, but we still Registered more than 100 people the first day. Some updates were made and it seems to be working
as planned. Follow a few steps to make sure your attempt to Reg works smoothly.
When you get here select Add a guest first before pick your guests shirts size, it will bring you back to that, DSONT ask why...
If you adding more than one person, log out and start a new Registration, with any website, DO NOT use the same email address for additional people or guest, it doesn't work...
email : kenhowk2021pjreunion@gmail.com if you have any issues
Memorial Service for the Great one, Udo Fischer
Monday, July 26, 2021
Veterans Memorial Park in Tularosa.
DATE: Monday, July 26th 9:30 to 10:00 am
LOCATION: Park is reserved
901-989 N Bookout Rd
Tularosa, NM 88352
Just an early announcement to mark your schedule.
FLAG FOLDING: We are coordinating the honor guard details on this end.
FORMAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Will be prepared this week for email distribution, plus a link to an EVITE to get RSVP, please email: susieq.zing@gmail.com if you plan to attend
HOTEL: being looked for
Please feel free to contact me on my cell phone anytime at your convenience 385-347-9013.
Gratefully, Susanne Fischer Mitchell
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One from the memory books.
The True Deffiniton of the Brotherhood,,,
Brian Kimber the recipient of a new Kidney from a Brother PJ/CCT stud. Brian was a PJ until being separated for renal failure, then he worked as a contractor for a long time until he could no longer do that either. On dialysis for the last 9 months or so. You can reach out to him too Brian @ 323-251-0697 or oceanbeachpj@yahoo.com
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We are out of rooms at Our rate, and some nights are completely sold out.
There may be some cancelations, we are asking anyone with a room not able to attend to please let us know so we can put back into the tool Box.
We will add information on a suggested hotel in the area soon,
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October 27th-30th, 2021
31st being a Travel day home
Get there before the show starts at 1700 on Wednesday
Sponsors can e-mail us now to reserve your spot.
bill.watson@pjassociation.com
USE THIS LINK TO RESERVE YOUR ROOM NOW
If you have to call, use Pararescue 2021 when calling in 520-792-3500, #8
PJ Reunion
events are being finalized with the hotel
October 27th / Wed - Registration (1200-500), Ice Break and Opening Ceremony Hospitality room events, 1600-2300, get there early...
*Other events and Competitions TBD
Oct 28 / Thur - Registration, Events with the Rodeo, and More,
Golf Tournament, Bikers Ride, Poker Tournament Painting With Friends, Full schedule will be out soon with Registration.
Oct 29th / Events and Rodeo Awards Presentation, and yes the OLD guys will team up with an active duty team mate for a mystery event day!!!
Oct 30th / Events Membership Meeting and PJA Banquet
Oct 31st, Travel day home
The Teams and Units are hard at work,,,
PJ Rodeo
October 24th - 29th, 2021
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Next Graduation Date August 12th, 2021
Its back on after to long, PJ / CRO graduation. Join us in making this one of the biggest and best for them after Covid lock down for more than a year. We will be putting on the Family, Student and Staff Barbecue day again.
Special thanks to our sponsor and members that help make the PJ / CRO Graduations and the Family day a great success. Without them, we could not pull this off. The families, Staff and Graduates proudly share their thanks.
See the link below to donate...
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Special Thanks
to our Corporate Level Donors as well as our
Individual donors;
Brian Hicks
Janet and Ray “CZ” Colon-Lopez
Wayne and Angie Fisk
How the Rusty Nail became the PJ Ceremonial Drink
It was the early portion of the wet season of 1971 in Southeast Asia along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
For months the bad-guys (read: North Vietnamese, Pathet Laotians, and Red Chinese communist forces) had been taking a toll on American aerial resources interdicting the flow of traffic south on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Of course, any USAF or Navy fast-movers that got shot down meant that USAF and Navy rescue helicopters (but mainly USAF) had to go in and pick them up--which meant that if those sleek, fast- moving super-fast jets got clobber, imagine what such slow, lumbering, huge helicopters (HH-53C) of the 40th ARRS and the 37th ARRS would get. Quad' 50s, 37 mm, and 57 mm couldn't miss--and they usually didn't.
Now, it wasn't that we (ARRS) were loosing a lot of helos or men, but the overall loss-rate of U.S. aerial resources was beginning to climb to the point that we were becoming a bit 'concerned'.
Something was happening along that piece of bad-guy real estate which made those anti-aircraft gunners really good. Some in the American intell community thought that, perhaps, the bad-guys had gotten a copy of the then-current AF OJT manual on how to do things really smarter and more professionally. Perhaps they had all become qualified 7-levels. Whatever it was, they was good, and we was [sic] worried.
So, when we lost a PJ as a KIA or WIA, we'd get together at the NCO Club and simply drink ourselves into oblivion, giving hoo-ya's to him, telling war-stories, and wondering who'd be coming in to replace him. It was a ritual not dissimilar of past warriors in previous eras, probably no different than, say, WW II.
At NKP Royal Thai AFB (RTAFB), Thailand by mid-1971, shortly after the 40th ARRS had moved from Udorn RTAFB, we had lost someone to whatever status (KIA or WIA) on a mission, and the typical gathering had occurred at the club; and the typical toasting was in session. A PJ, who had just arrived at the unit from the States, suggested we formally adopt a ceremonial drink for such occasions instead of the run-of-the-mill rounds. And he
mentioned something called a Rusty Nail.
No one had heard of it.
So it was tried. Drambui and Scotch. Sounded like ca-ca; tasted the same; and it was soundly besmirched and disparaged. But the guy who suggested it was of sufficient popularity and rank, and mused that, perhaps, the PJ palates were not sufficiently sophisticated.
No, it was merely the wrong scotch.
So various brands such as Doers, J&B, Ballantines', Johnny Red, Jack Daniel's, even Chivas Regal were tried--nothing worked until the time Johnny Walker Green was poured. The combination was pure nectar. And if one got drunk enough, it rhymed with Jolly Green: Johnny Green/Jolly Green. "... Johnny Green or Jolly Green ... or ... hell, just give me another Rusty Nail."
Now the proper toasting of PJ fallen could really be done in style. One could hardly wait until the next guy got hosed, it seemed.
But at about the same time of this monumental breakthrough in PJ tradition or etiquette or... whatever ... was being made, U.S. intell sources had discovered why the bad-guy gunners had become so good: Soviet-imported Fan Song surface-to-air radar tracking systems. So the bad-guys had up- graded electronically, eh?
With that knowledge, U.S. aerial assets went after those targets with their own electronic upgrades, and with a vengeance. Day and night our forces blew the ca-ca out of those sites; one could look off into the horizon and follow the rising smoke columns all the way back into North Vietnam.
And the losses of American men and material dramatically dropped.
But it was too late for the PJs at NKP; they'd already become hooked on Rusty Nails. Those guys
would celebrate anything for an excuse to raise a toast of a Rusty Nail.
They'd call a toast if a guy had a birthday--even if it were 10 years ago; they call for a toast if his wife
were pregnant--or if he got someone else's wife pregnant.
If his son or daughter won a baseball or volleyball game: toast.
If he were going home: toast.
Promotion: toast.
One PJ even commented, "Hey, I got a dose of the clap last week ..." Toast. It was crazy, but the custom had been established.
Rusty Nails were born in Southeast Asia as the 40th ARRS Pararescue Team drink. The words to the toast were simple and uncomplicated yet extremely meaningful: 'TO PJs PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE'.
When the war in Southwest Asia kicked in, our brother PJ and CRO warriors took the drink there; they did not let the custom of their predecessors fade away. From SEA to SWA, it prevailed.
And today before PJs and CROs deploy, or upon the sad occasions when losses occur from their ranks, our warriors raise their glasses of Rusty Nails and toast to:
Written by:
CMSgt (ret) Wayne Fisk (PJ 1966 - '83)
"PJs/CROs past, present, and future."
Original member 40 ARRS
1967-1968: 40 ARRS Udron RTAFB, Thai
1969-1970: 37 ARRS DaNang AB, RVN
1970-1971: 40 ARRS Udron RTAFB, Thai
1971-1972: 40 ARRS Nakorn Phanom (NKP) RTAFB, Thai (origination of the PJ team drink) 1974-1976: 40 ARRS Nakorn Phanom RTAFB, Thai
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Some are here... and some Coming Soon,
Keep your eyes on the Pararescue Association Store, the only place that really supports your Organization, we don't have to say we make a donation to... we are the Pararescue Association !!!
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Get your PJ Association Life Membership today
Click the Cert below to start
Get your Life Membership Pin and Certificate at the next Reunion
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He's back
Charlie that is, make sure you get your Charlie Doll before they are all gone.
Click his photo to go to the PJ Store
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| Pararescue
Association Officers:
- President - Bill Watson
- Vice Pres. - John Pighini
- Treasurer - Ryan Beckmann
- Recorder - Scott Gearen
Association Board Member:
- Rod Alne
- Joe Topel
- L.D. Jeffries
- Steve West
Past Association Presidents:
- Roy Taylor
- Randy Galloway
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