Tech sgt. tim wilkinson biography
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Wilkinson, Timothy A.
Timothy A. Wilkinson was a Pararescueman who served in Operation Just Cause in Panama, the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia, and Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti. Wilkinson was born in Corry, Pennsylvania in 1957. He enlisted in the United States Air Force on 6 January 1981 and was initially trained as a Missile Systems Analyst Specialist. After completing his first tour at Chanute AFB, Illinois he volunteered for cross-training into the pararescue career field, serving at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska in the 71st Aerospace Rescue Recovery Squadron and the 1730th Pararescue Squadron until November 1988. Wilkinson also served in the 1724th Special Tactics Squadron at Pope AFB, North Carolina from 1988-1996.
On 3 October 1993, US forces from Task Force Ranger in Mogadishu, Somalia were on a mission to apprehend two leaders of the Somali National Alliance. Wilkinson and the rest of the Combat Search and Rescue Team were circling above the city in a Black Hawk helicopte
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Heroes at Mogadishu
Last October 3, a Somali gunman firing a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launcher shot down a US Army MH-60 helicopter, sending the aircraft and its load of Rangers plummeting into the streets of Mogadishu. Somali irregulars raced to the scene. A successful Ranger raid, which had just bagged most of the high command of warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed, was about to go haywire.
Nearby, the main task force of some 100 Rangers, informed of the crash, snapped to alert. Under nonstop fire from automatic weapons and RPG launchers, the group moved 500 yards southwest to secure the crash site and skydda Americans on the ground. The entire US party was soon engulfed in a våldsam firefight that lasted eighteen hours and became a war for survival against thousands of well-armed Somali toughs.
At battle’s end, the US force had eighteen dead and eighty had been wounded. More than 300 Somalis were dead-including most of the original twenty Somali captives scooped up
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Timothy Wilkinson was born in 1957 in Corry, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force on January 6, 1981, and was trained as a Missile System Analyst Specialist. Wilkinson's first assignment was as a technical training instructor at Chanute AFB, Illinois, where he served from April 1981 to November 1984. He then cross-trained into the Pararescue career field, and served with the 71st Aerospace Rescue Recovery Squadron and then the 1730th Pararescue Squadron, both at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, until November 1988. Sgt Wilkinson then served with the 1724th Special Tactics Squadron at Pope AFB, North Carolina, from November 1988 to September 1996. During this time, he participated in Operation Just Cause in Panama, the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia, and Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti. In September 1996, Sgt Wilkinson transferred to the 720th Special Tactics Group at Hurlburt Field, Florida, where he served until his retirement from the Air Force on September 30, 2001.
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