Afghanistan & Ukraine Special Ops Rescues with Travis Peterson

Click a logo to listen on your platform of choice:

Director and Founding Member of Moral Compass Federation, Travis Peterson is former 6th Special Operations Squadron, Combat Aviation Advisor who served multiple combat tours and was heavily involved in Afghanistan and in the rescue of our former allies (he actually chartered a flight to return to Afghanistan the day before it fell to fly out some of our former pilots), and who has now pivoted part of his focus to the Ukraine emergency.  

Travis Peterson is a retired Master Sergeant and served in the United States Air Force for 21 years. MSgt Peterson started his career as a Nuclear Weapons Specialist. After 9/11, Peterson began his flying career as a Special Missions Aviator flying combat search and rescue on the HH-60G Pave Hawk completing five deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2009, he then joined the 6th Special Operations Squadron as a Special Operations Combat Aviation Advisor focused on SOUTHCOM, EUCOM, and Middle Eastern foreign internal defense.

Peterson has extensive experience in foreign internal defense advising, aiding partner nations with aviation tactics for integration and interoperability. He conducted operations flying primarily on the Russian-built Mi-17 and Huey helicopters into sensitive areas supporting the joint arena combatant commander’s theater security cooperation plans.

Peterson was then tasked from SOCOM to Afghanistan's Air Interdiction Unit. He facilitated the initiation of the Special Mission Wing, spending the remainder of his career in support of this unit.

Peterson was severely injured during one of two helicopter crashes with his Afghan counterparts and credited them with putting their lives on the line multiple times to keep him safe.

All of this resulted in a triumphant air-to-ground and ground-to-air mechanism shaping the Special Mission Wing into Afghanistan's most elite fighting force.

Upon his retirement from the United States Air Force, Peterson returned to Afghanistan as a private contractor flying and training SMW personnel which grew to four squadrons and 1000 personnel on the Mi-17 and UH-60 Blackhawk. When the Taliban took Kabul, Peterson raised funds for a private plane and went back to bring his pilots and crews from the SMW unit. He left only one day before the U.S. entirely withdrew from Afghanistan.

Peterson kept the promise to his Afghan partners. He continuously supports and advocates for those left behind in Afghanistan. Peterson founded the Moral Compass Federation and served as the director upon returning from Afghanistan. Moral Compass Federation is a coalition of 17 NGOs focused on sustaining Afghan Special Operations, Special Mission Wing, and the Afghan Air Force inside Afghanistan. The federation provides safe homes, food and even relocates them away from the Taliban's reach until their clear path to freedom is established.