99 Squadron has many duties that it carries out, but I only wish to bring to your attention two of them. The first is to bring home to their families those that have laid down their lives in the service of their country, a sad task that 99 Squadron carries out all too frequently. Another less well known duty is to fly a dedicated medical team directly to Afghanistan and bring seriously injured service personnel back to the UK for urgent medical treatment. Again this is a task we carry out all too frequently and means we get to personally witness the heavy price that young men and women are paying in service to their country. Channel 4 recently made a documentary about this titled the Air Hospital which you may have watched.

As a result of these duties the Squadron feels a profound need to help those that have been seriously injured. So 99 Squadron and the Birmingham Airport Police Unit have teamed up and will be holding a Charity Aircraft Pull on the 10th September 2011. This will involve 20 Teams from both the RAF and Civilian Police, pulling a C-17 Aircraft that weighs approximately 300,000lbs over a set distance, the fastest team winning a trophy. Each team is tasked with collecting as much sponsorship as possible and all moneys raised will go to BLESMA (British Limbless Ex Service Men's Association) and RAFA (Royal Air Force Association).