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'' The Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service (RAFMRS) provides land rescue over the mountain areas of the United Kingdom. Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Teams (MRTs) were first organised during World War II to rescue aircrew from the large number of aircraft crashes then occurring on high ground. The practice at the time was to organise ad-hoc rescue parties from station medical sections and other ground personnel. Experience demonstrated that this could be dangerous. While the mountains of the United Kingdom are not very tall, they contain much formerly glaciated terrain with steep cliffs, talus slopes, high peaks and cirque basins, and generally experience a sub-Arctic climate at relatively low altitudes. Snow and high winds, sometimes in excess of , are possible any month of the year. Rescue operations in these conditions require personnel with specialised mountaineering training and equipment. The Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Teams are credited with some of the earliest development of mountain rescue techniques and teams in the United Kingdom and overseas. Despite potential team reductions under the current UK Coalition Government (2011), RAFMRS teams continue to contribute to life-saving and mountain safety. The MRS is now part of 85 ELW under 38 Group ==Foundation== RAF policy from the very early days of 1918 was for the station medical officer to attend all aircraft crashes as, initially at least, the low air speeds meant that many crashes were survivable and first aid would be given before the crews were moved either into Station Sick Quarters or a hospital. A single RAF medical officer, Flight Lieutenant George Desmond Graham (also known as "Doc" Graham), is credited with pressurising the Air Ministry into forming the RAF Mountain Rescue Service (MRS). Graham was one of several RAF medical doctors who organized teams at RAF Llandwrog in North Wales in 1943, at RAF Millom (southern Lake District), and at Harpur Hill (Peak District), where Flt Lt (later Air Commodore) David Crichton performed a similar role. Graham's team rescued dozens of allied airmen from Snowdonia before Graham was posted to Burma, where he took part in an early pararescue operation (strikingly similar to one generally credited as the beginning of United States Air Force Pararescue), saving the life of a Royal Canadian Air Force navigator, Flying Officer W Prosser.〔 Shortly after the war the fledgling service was reorganized and retrained along professional grounds through an influx of trained mountaineers, including Sgt Hans Pick, a former Austrian Army Alpine instructor and Sergeant J R "Johnny" Lees, whose involvement with the service is recounted by author and mountain guide Gwen Moffat in her 1964 book about the early days of the service. Other notable early team leaders include Squadron Leader David Dattner OBE, Colin Pibworth, and John Hinde.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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