finished watching rescue wings

"That others may live", that's the line shown at the start of every episode of Rescue Wings.

Rescue Wings is a very touching Japanese anime revolving around Uchida, a 23 year old pilot just graduated from the air force school. From his high school days he had been dreaming of becoming a fighter jet pilot in the Japan Air Self Defense Force. Sadly he was posted as a helicopter pilot with the Komatsu Air Rescue Squadron flying the UH-60J whereas one of his course mate was posted as a F-15J fighter pilot in the same airbase. At Komatsu, Uchida met a very demanding and nasty superior Hongo. Hongo just took every opportunity to dig out the best out of Uchida. The only people nice to Uchida were the paramedics, who were physically tough and saw every person rescued as a victory in itself. Beside having to cope with his nasty superior, Uchida had to learn to face death in the numerous rescue missions.

I find this drama very meaningful, as it touched on many issues such as ambition, mission, decisions... Being a helicopter pilot in a rescue squadron wasn't what Uchida had wanted, and at first he was half hearted at his job. After seeing how important his task was after natural disaster and one cable car accident in which he was rescued by his own superior Hongo, Uchida finally took pride in his work and strive to improve on his piloting skill. The most dramatic part was in last episode when Hongo in the pilot seat was hit by falling rocks, with a "You have control" he passed the control of 'Helios 78' to Uchida in the co-pilot seat, and from then on Uchida had the whole crew and rescuee's life in his hands. Still, not dramatic enough, but at the ending song could see Uchida finally got himself qualified to take the pilot seat.

Official website of Rescue Wings