It's something we (all the services) are very good at, and has little publicity outside the services.
A "Comp A", as I guess this was can use "fastest possible means" - often a helicopter, but I've also known of Timmys being turned back to FI to pick someone up, and Civ Pol being used to break into someone's parents' house to collect their (the parents) passports for a civ flight to Germany when it was the serviceperson who was dying......