6th SOS
Written by JAMIE HAIG
THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS SQUADRON PERFORMS A UNIQUE MISSION WORLDWIDE BY HELPING FOREIGN AIR FORCES DEFEND THEIR OWN COUNTRIES AND FUNCTION AS VIABLE COALITION PARTNERS.
The 6th Special Operations Squadron’s mission is to assess, train, advise and assist foreign aviation forces in airpower employment, sustainment and force integration. “We support the national security policy by helping foreign friends and allies to defend their own countries and to function as viable coalition partners,” said Jerome Klingaman, 6th SOS director of strategy and plans, “The U.S. can’t win the global war on terrorism and insurgency alone. It’s a global phenomenon—and requires global buy-in and commitment by our allies.”
It’s the 6th SOS’s job to help foreign military organizations to defend themselves. “It starts with America’s strategic interests and how we achieve them by enabling foreign forces,” said Klingaman. “That’s why we assess, train, advise and assist. Enabling foreign forces is the key.”
The 6th SOS is designed just for that purpose—to solve the enablement problems in airpower. Not just airplane or helicopter issues, but its airpower as a whole. They help the foreign aviation units to perform the mission set efficiently, effectively and safely. “A nation can’t do a sortie if it can’t maintain the aircraft, doesn’t have logistics or even a base defense,” Klingaman noted. “We just don’t train them up and be done with them.”
The Philippines is one of the 6th SOS’s frequent customers.
After September 11, 2001, the U.S. transferred several UH-1H helicopters to the Philippine air force. The Philippine air force could fly them, but not tactically. Over several years and numerous trips, the crews from the 6th SOS trained the Filipino crews starting with visual flight rules to night-vision tactical insertion and extraction for combat operations and casualty evacuations.
TRAIN THE TRAINER
“We reach the ground truth on foreign nation capabilities,” said Klingaman. “We determine what they can and cannot do.”
The squadron accomplishes its mission through operational aviation detachments that cover training, advising, command and control and communications. When the operational aviation detachment is sent to a location, they split up to do their jobs. The fliers go to the host nation pilots and review training records, qualifications, standards and evaluations. Maintainers look over the aircraft’s records, depot overhauls, all the forms and paperwork that involve the aircraft. Then they view the aircraft and determine its air worthiness.
When the maintainers give the thumbs up to the fliers, the assessment with the host nation begins. The team writes up an assessment report that goes to the U.S. authorities in Air Force Special Operations Command, U.S. Special Operations Command, the theater special operations command and the U.S. embassy. The report may include recommendations to obtain equipment before continuing training.
In order to do this job, the 6th SOS squadron has unique equipment.
Two UH-1N helicopters are assigned to the 6th SOS, and a Russian AN-26 Antonov, Mi-8 helicopter and C-47 are on lease to the unit. The 6th SOS also flies C-130 slicks that belong to the 16th Special Operations Wing. These aircraft are used for training here and don’t deploy with the squadron.
The squadron’s goal is to work with foreign aviation forces to facilitate their availability, reliability and safety and increase their potential to interoperate with the U.S. “We’re not trying to create a mirror image of the U.S. Air Force,” said Klingaman. “We work with them within the context of their financial and technological limitations.”
Training is theoretical. Advising is realworld situation specific.
At present, there are more than 100 U.S. Air Force officers and airmen who are in training with the 6th SOS and the USAF Special Operations School, to function as embedded advisors with the Iraqi Air Force.
They will go through a small part of the normal six-month training in one month. Becoming culturally and politically astute are necessary requirements in order for these airmen to be able to advise and assist the Iraqi Air Force correctly.
THE AIR COMMANDO TAB
Becoming a member of the Air Force’s only combat aviation squadron isn’t as easy as requesting an assignment to the squadron. With 37 Air Force specialty codes within a 105-person squadron, they cover all four regions of the world.
“Our average age [of airman] in the squadron is 34 years old,” said Master Sergeant Vincent Milioti, NCO in charge of integrated skills training. “We require mature individuals to handle the missions we’re given.”
Due to the geographically-specific missions of the 6th Special Operations Squadron, members must go through a rigorous, intense training regimen that can take up to a year. “Everyone’s a specialist in what they do,” said Milioti. “We determine how well they operate in a small team and as a leader.”
The candidates apply for the unit by sending a career resume showing their past Air Force experience and then appear before a 6th SOS board. If they pass muster with the board, the four-phase training process begins.
The first phase is initial language training. The candidates take a language proficiency test, which determines their potential to learn a language. Those test scores determine which language they will learn at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, N.C. Depending on the language, the courses are either four or six months long.
However, there is an exception for native speakers. “If a candidate is a native speaker of a particular language, they skip to Phase II,” said Milioti.
Phase II, the academic phase, is approximately one-and-a-half months long and is where the student attends a variety of courses at the USAF Special Operations School at Hurlburt Field, Fla.
The dynamics of international terrorism, cross-cultural communications and contemporary insurgent warfare courses are just a few required courses to familiarize the airmen with not only the aspects of special operations, but the cultural differences that they might experience in their missions.
Phase III is when the training intensifies. Known as the integrated skills training section, it’s where students learn real teamwork. There are four core disciplines learned: weapons and tactics, communications, medical and mission planning. Phase III is also one-and-a-half months long, but far more physically and mentally challenging than the other phases.
“It’s amazing what these guys will put their bodies through to be part of the unit,” said Milioti. “And these aren’t young kids.” The final test of this phase is the Raven Claw exercise, where the candidates learn unconventional warfare.
Deployed to a fictitious country, everything they’ve learned will be put into practice.
The country they’re in starts to deteriorate and they are left alone to recover on their own. The past month of training will kick in and they will show they have what it takes to survive in any situation. They’ll go days without sleep, wear 60 pounds of gear and be pushed mentally and physically.
“It builds team unity and teaches them that without the team, they cannot survive,” said Milioti. “It’s about discipline, plain and simple.”
Upon finishing Raven Claw, the airmen are awarded the Air Commando tab, proof they’ve passed the toughest and most stringent part of training at the 6th SOS.
“The Air Force teaches very basic field craft and tactics to its members,” said Milioti. “We have to take that basic tactical training to another level to prepare advisors to operate throughout the range of military operations—from military operations other than war to major regional conflict.”
The month-long Phase IV, called the specialty developmental phase, is the final element in 6th SOS training.
Aviators, called combat aviation advisors, learn how to train others on the country’s aircraft in which they’ve been chosen to specialize. For example, airmen specializing in the Middle East will learn about the Mi-17 helicopter since so many countries in the region use it.
“The combat aviation advisor is the weapons system,” Milioti said. “We use whatever is in the country. That’s what the training is all about.”
All of the training allows the 6th SOS airmen to operate in a country without additional U.S. support. “When we embed, we eat their food, know their culture, and speak their language,” said Milioti. “It’s easy to walk out on a tarmac and work with the crews who are the best in the world. We don’t have that luxury when we embed.”
The 6th SOS follows a simple truth: They send in 15 troops now so the United States doesn’t have to send in 15,000 later. “We execute missions worldwide with less than 100 people,” Milioti said. “We help allies deter subversion, lawlessness, terrorism and insurgency in their country.”
GROWTH DEMANDS QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY
One Hurlburt Field squadron has been mandated to significantly increase the unit’s size in a relatively short time frame, creating real challenges in recruiting, training, and requirements for additional facilities. On December 10, 2004, Army General Bryan D. Brown, USSOCOM commander, directed the 6th Special Operations Squadron to increase the squadron’s size, focusing on flying and maintaining aircraft.
In order to accomplish this task, the squadron needs to add personnel to its roster. “Our biggest challenge is acquiring the newly-authorized number of people while maintaining the quality of the individuals selected,” said Klingaman.
Mission requirements are the real driver for the growth of the 6th SOS.
During the year following General Brown’s visit, the squadron was unable to support 58 percent of the officially requested tasks because of insufficient combat aviation advisor resources. “The command’s goal is to fill the newly allocated positions by the end of fiscal year 2007,” said Lieutenant Colonel Dan Grillone, 6th SOS commander. “We’re looking for the right personnel, and we’re hiring right now.”
The 6th SOS is working with AFSOC and the Air Force Personnel Center to recruit the right people for the job. “We’re recruiting highly experienced, instructorqualified people,” said Grillone. “It’s important that we take the growth seriously and do it methodically and efficiently.”
The application package helps the squadron acquire the right types of people for the mission. “We’re doing effects-based planning in this growth initiative,” Grillone said. “This is to get the desired effect from the planning process to prosecute the war on terror through enabling our coalition partners to fight terrorists on their own soil. Our growth is directly related to the national security strategy, a strategy that relies on enabling our allies to help fight terrorism.”
With its increased size, the squadron will be more capable of meeting regional requirements around the world. With more hot spots than before, certain regions will receive more emphasis and the squadrons’ growth will reflect that.
“Our focus will be the USSOCOM priority countries,” Grillone said. “The United States cannot fight the GWOT alone, that’s why we’re enabling our partner nations to deal with internal threats and function as viable coalition partners.” “We help foreign friends and allies defend themselves against the internal threats of terrorism and insurgency,” said Klingaman. “That’s our job.”
Along with people, the squadron’s aircraft inventory will probably increase as well. Already sporting several different types of aircraft on their tarmac, the new additions will be selected based on types of aircraft possessed by the countries they’ll be helping. “We’re also looking to acquire more aircraft, such as the UH-1H helicopter and C-130 aircraft,” said Grillone.
Another issue the squadron faces is working space for the personnel they have now and for new recruits. “We don’t have the physical space to accommodate them right now,” said Grillone. “We’re looking for an expanded workspace for new hires.”
The squadron is being proactive for a much larger purpose and for a much larger cause, while still maintaining the unit’s own training and capabilities. “The important point is that we must achieve the growth, train our new people, and do the mission simultaneously,” said Klingaman. “We cannot stop the missions while we’re hiring and training new people.”
Training a new member of the 6th SOS requires six to eight months of intense training that is broken down into a fourphase process. “We’re still going to need people to train the new recruits as well as people to deploy for our on-going missions,” said Grillone. “We’ve devised a special training program to handle just this.”
COMBAT AVIATION ADVISORS
A combat aviation advisor (CAA) from the 6th SOS helps friendly and allied aviation forces maintain their own airpower assets and integrate their resources into other multi-national operations when necessary.
Sound easy? Not at all.
“You’ve got to be well-versed in your particular skill set, whatever that might be,” said Lieutenant Colonel Alton Phillips, 6th SOS assistant operations officer. “You’re also a communicator, and must be absolutely knowledgeable about other aspects of airpower. You must be solid in your area of expertise and capable of pushing through cultural and linguistic barriers.
For example, the 6th SOS was sent to Iraq in 2005 to help the country’s air force establish itself. Phillips and a team deployed to Iraq to work with the Iraqi air force on their fixed and rotary-wing capabilities.
“This wasn’t a normal deployment for us,” said Phillips. “Normally, we have time to perform an in-country airpower assessment, meet with host-nation personnel and formulate a strategy for achieving the commander’s goals and objectives. “From that we write a detailed squadron plan for moving a specifically-tailored combat aviation advisory team into the target country to perform the train, advise and assist mission. Instead, our CAA personnel deployed to assist and advise the Iraqi Air Force without knowing the current capabilities and limitations of their aircrews, maintainers and equipment.”
The Iraqi air force had approximately 300 members and a few dozen aircraft in its inventory. “We found that their pilots had very little recent flying experience and most of the aircraft were unflyable,” said Phillips. “A great deal of energy was expended with the Iraqi airmen on issues ranging from personnel matters, to billeting, administration, and command and control. We also had to assist with organizing basic squadron functional areas. Additional challenges involved determining how and where aircraft parts and tools could be located as well as finding out how to utilize available funding sources.”
Basically, the 6th SOS was starting from scratch.
“It was difficult because most of the aircraft were marginally effective, general aviation resources, and the Iraqi Air Force did not have anything in the way of training plans, operating instructions or standard operating procedures,” said Phillips. But as combat aviation advisors, members of the 6th SOS are trained and conditioned to adapt to these situations.
With the exception of the C-130 squadron, located then at Ali Air Base, most operations conducted by the Iraqi Air Force were intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
Part of the 6th SOS CAA job was to teach Iraqi air force personnel that they must be flexible and work with U.S. and Iraqi Army forces, creating a joint and combined battlefield.
“ISR is worthless if you can’t get the information to the other party,” said Phillips.
He explained a situation during his deployment where the trust and rapport built up between himself and an Iraqi Air Force member made the difference between life and death. On one occasion, Phillips and an Iraqi Air Force pilot, Captain Ali Hussam Abass Alrubaeye, were flying home from Baghdad when they experienced an engine flame-out.
“At that point, the aircraft, a Comp Air 7 home-built kit plane, was nothing but a big glider,” said Phillips. “We had to find a smooth location to land while communicating our problems at the same time.”
Phillips made the necessary radio calls, and Abass landed the plane on a dirt road. Fortunately, there were no injuries.
Within 30 seconds of landing, the men noticed a rising dust trail on the road, indicating they were going to have company— soon. “Abass thought it best if the only person they saw was him, not an American military member,” said Phillips. “Fortunately, we’d landed near a dirt berm where I was instructed by Ali to lay low and stay quiet while he handled the people.”
This made it almost impossible for Phillips to communicate with the rescue crews since his hiding place was close to the downed aircraft. Although U.S. Army helicopter crews had been notified of the forced landing, directing them to the location was almost impossible.
For an hour, Abass had to deal with approximately 150 people who gathered at the downed aircraft.
Major Brian Downs, another 6th SOS advisor, heard the radio transmissions and immediately launched his plane, also a Comp Air 7, to help with the rescue. Downs was able to direct the helicopters to the location.
As the helicopters and the airplane were seen in the distance, Abass announced to the crowd that although he was their friend and their countryman, the incoming aircraft might not look upon the crowd as friendly and it would be better if they left the area.
The Iraqis did exactly that, allowing the two men to be rescued without incident.
“Captain Abass did a great job of keeping the crowds under control,” said Phillips. “If I’d been with someone that wasn’t as cool-headed or as intelligent as he was, I don’t think it would have turned out as well.”
This kind of rapport building and teamwork, and ability to adapt, is all a part of being a combat aviation advisor.
However, so is sacrifice. On May 30, 2005, an Iraqi Air Force Comp Air 7 crashed while surveying potential emergency landing fields in the eastern Diyala province, killing everyone on board. Those who died included Captain Abass, Major Downs, and three combat controllers from the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron.
“Major Downs did a great job of showing the Iraqis how much they could contribute to the fight,” Phillips said. “He showed them how to operate in the joint and combined arenas and how to fight insurgents in their own country, using their own assets, in their own way.
This is what 6th SOS combat aviation advisors are—trainers and advisors helping other countries fight for themselves against terrorists and insurgents. It’s what they do. ♦