Honoring an Enlisted Hero: Senior Airman Jason D. Cunningham

  • Published
  • By Mr. John M. Lacomia
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing History Office
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  It is my duty as a pararescueman to save life and to aid the injured. I will be prepared at all times to perform my assigned duties quickly and efficiently, placing these duties before my personal desires and comforts. These things I do, "That Others May Live." - Lt. Col. Richard T. Kight, father of the "U.S. Air Rescue Service."

This is the creed of the United States Air Force Pararescueman or "PJs" whose mission is to save the lives of military and civilians utilizing conventional and unconventional methods. Their training and qualifications include a variety of combat, search and rescue, and medical support expertise. Within the Department of Defense, pararescueman are the only group that conducts this mission.

On March 4, Travis Air Force Base, in-concert with Balfour Beatty Communities, will dedicate a street in the base's enlisted housing area in honor of fallen pararescueman Senior Airman Jason Dean Cunningham. The dedication will be made exactly eight years after Airman Cunningham perished on Takur Ghar Mountain in Afghanistan during Operation Anaconda after saving the lives of 10 injured comrades.

Cunningham was born March 27, 1975, and grew up in Carlsbad, N.M. He attended Carlsbad High School for a time, but eventually graduated from Farmington High School in May 1994. Growing up, he was full of life, living each moment to the fullest and always looking for new adventures, according to his mother, Jackie Cunningham. He also was athletic, playing football, running track and swimming. This would serve him well as he enlisted in the U.S. Navy's delayed entry program.

In June 1994 he entered the Navy and was trained as an aviation boatswain's mate. His first assignment led him to Naval Support Activities Naples in Italy. It was while stationed in Naples that on Sept. 25 of that same year, he met his future wife, Theresa de Castro, also an enlisted sailor in the Navy. They married in March 1996 and would go on to have two daughters, Kyla and Hannah.

While still in the Navy, he considered joining the Navy Sea, Air, Land Special tactics team (SEALS), after he passed their fitness test, but ultimately decided he wanted a different career path. In a conversation with his father, he stated "I want to save people." When his four-year enlistment in the Navy was finished in June 1998, he sought to enlist in the Air Force as a pararescueman.

Ten months later in April 1999, Cunningham entered the U.S. Air Force. By June of that year, Airman Cunningham started his training as a pararescuman. He completed the PJs 21-month training in June 2001. From there, Airman Cunningham was sent to the 38th Rescue Squadron at Moody Air Force Base, Ga.

Eight months later after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City, the Pentagon and Shankstown, Pa., Airman Cunningham was deployed to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. It was at Bagram that Cunningham's training was put into practice.

While the PJs were located inside an air operations building, which also housed a forward surgical team, Airman Cunningham took advantage of the training opportunities of which availed him. "Every time we had a casualty event, Cunningham was always the first one there offering to help," said Dr. (Maj.) Brian Burlingame, the surgical unit's commander.

In honing his medical skills, Airman Cunningham was involved with allowing PJs the ability to carry whole blood into combat as a part of their medical life-saving equipment, which had not been allowed previously by the Food and Drug Administration. Once trained and certified, Airman Cunningham personally ensured all of the rest of the pararescueman at Bagram met the same requirements.

It was on March 4, 2002, Airman Cunningham was the primary Air Force combat search and rescue medic assigned for a quick extraction. The mission entailed recovering Tech. Sgt. John A. Chapman, a combat controller assigned to a SEAL team, and Petty Officer First Class Neil C. Roberts, a SEAL, who were downed at Takur Ghar, a mountain range in the Hindu Kush.

When the MH-47E Chinook arrived in the area, it was quickly overcome by rocket- propelled grenades and small-arms fire. Upon a hard landing, Airman Cunningham moved swiftly to treat the casualties. Disregarding extreme risk to his own life, Airman Cunningham continually exposed himself to enemy fire to move the casualties to safer ground.

During one of his rescues, he was fatally wounded by small-arms fire. Aware of the severity of his injuries, he continued to treat his patients and pass along vital information about their medical status to other medical personnel on the scene until he lost consciousness.

On Sept. 13, 2002, Airman Cunningham was posthumously awarded the Air Force Cross at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. During the ceremony Gen. John P. Jumper, former Air Force Chief of Staff, conveyed to the audience that, "I stand before you today in the humble attempt to assemble the words to honor a hero, know in advance that my attempt will fall short of the tribute that is his due."

It is for the sacrifices that Airman Cunningham made "that others may live" and we at Travis will honor him with his parents present in a ceremony fit for a true hero.

The Cunningham family contributed to this article