United States Air Force Combat Rescue School

United States Air Force Combat Rescue School
Combat Rescue School Shield
Active1946-1995
Country United States of America
Branch United States Air Force
RoleSearch and Rescue
Motto(s)That Others may Live"
Insignia
Original Air Rescue Service Shield
Former Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service Shield
Aircraft flown
HelicopterH-19, HH-43, HH-3, HH-53
TransportHU-16, HC-130

The United States Air Force Combat Rescue School (for most of its existence, either Air Rescue Service or Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service), was an organization of the United States Air Force.

The school was established in 1946 as Air Rescue Service' under Air Transport Command, little more than a year before the United States Air Force's designation as a separate military service in September 1947. From June 1948 until 1983, it was a technical service of Military Air Transport Service (later Military Airlift Command), when it became part of Twenty-Third Air Force. It returned to Military Airlift Command control and was transferred to Air Combat Command in 1993.

The fixed-wing and helicopter air crews of the command were credited with 996 combat saves in the Korean War and 2,780 in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. The unit's motto was: "That Others May Live."

ARRS returned to its former name of ARS in 1989.

The current structure and strength of search and rescue in today's U.S. Air Force is focused primarily on combat search and rescue (CSAR) and Personnel Recovery (PR) and is greatly reduced from the air rescue force structure that served from 1946 through the end of the Vietnam Era.