Practice Makes Perfect
Written by Scott R. Gourley
SOTECH 2009 Volume: 7 Issue: 7 (September)
“We’re an Air Force Special Operations Command squadron, and we’re the guys who help land those planes in the dirt,” explained Major Dan Schilling, commander, USAF 125th Special Tactics Squadron.
One of the newest additions to the AFSOC Special Tactics structure, the 125th Special Tactics Squadron is part of the Air National Guard (ANG) and is based at Portland International Airport, Oregon. Along with the 123rd STS, an ANG unit based at Standiford Field, Ky., the 125th augments the 720th Special Tactics Group (STG) in supporting national security objectives, humanitarian efforts and training.
The 720th STG also has six active force components in the Continental United States—the 10th Combat Weather Squadron, 23rd STS and 720th Operations Support Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Fla.; the 21st and 24th STS at Pope Air Force Base, N.C.; and the 22nd STS at McChord Air Force Base, Washington—and is tasked as the functional manager for AFSOC’s two overseas special tactics squadrons: the 320th under the command of the 353rd Special Operations Group, Kadena Air Base, Japan, and the 321st under the command of the 352nd Special Operations Group at RAF Mildenhall, England.
Out in the dust at Bicycle Lake, the 125th was getting the most bang for the buck by supporting the larger joint service Exercise Hydra while also incorporating training and operations with their own specialized suite of equipment.
The Exercise Hydra scenario focused on the triggering event of an earthquake happening in a foreign country, complicated by an “adversarial component,” in which insurgents from a neighboring state had decided to use the natural disaster as a way to overthrow the regional government. That government had subsequently requested the assistance of the United States in all aspects of its unfolding crisis.
The Hydra scenario was developed by the USAF 615th Contingency Response Wing (CRW), one of the most likely units that would be tasked by the DoD in this type of response operation. With a mission set taking them anywhere from humanitarian assistance to wartime environment, the 615th CRW is one of two USAF CRWs (the other is the 621st, located at McGuire AFB, N.J.) tasked with employing “rapidly deployable cross-functional teams to quickly open forward airbases in an expeditionary environment to meet combatant commanders’ needs.”
The two Air Mobility Command wings’ flexible response options include employment of mission-ready airfield assessment teams, airfield operations, command and control, aerial port, and aircraft maintenance personnel, as well as airlift, weather, medical, intelligence, air traffic control, security forces, finance, fuels, supply and contracting personnel to project and sustain forces worldwide.
Garrison wing structure includes an assigned military and civilian work force of more than 650 personnel between three contingency response groups, a global support squadron, and a command staff.
For Hydra, field operations included contingency response element operations supporting aeromedical missions at Schoonover Airstrip (Landing Zone 35) on Fort Hunter-Liggett as well as contingency response group airbase opening and joint task force–port opening operations a few hundred miles south on Bicycle Lake.
“We control the assault zone—the landing strip,” Schilling continued. “We’re here to control the actual runway. We are in charge of clearing the runway, marking the runway, coordinating with the engineers to make sure that the runway is and remains useable, assessing that runway, and then controlling the airplane when it comes in.” Schilling, who is the “founder” of the new 125th, noted that the new organization does not include any pararescue jumpers (PJs) but rather focuses on a wide range combat skill sets.
“In addition [to the airfield operations], we’re also doing our own tactical training here. We’re doing high altitude parachute operations, static line parachute operations, and on- and off-load training for tactical vehicles; we have our motorcycles and fourwheelers out here,” he said.
Walking past a series of rapidly erected shelters, Schilling entered the “motor pool” area, where the unit’s vehicles were arrayed in various states of maintenance and readiness. Pointing under some camouflage netting, he continued, “Doc here is my mechanic. He keeps all of these things running, even though the guys beat them to death. We’ve got some ‘mini bikes’ we use for air-dropping; some ‘big bikes’ we use for air dropping on an airfield; the [Polaris] four-wheelers; and the small Prowlers. It’s kind of a mini-gun jeep. ... We use them for running around the airfield.”
The “mixed fleet” of four-wheelers represented just the type of complex tactical logistics dilemmas that U.S. Special Operations Command representatives hope to solve with their recent lightweight allterrain vehicles (LTATVs) procurement.
Reflecting on the multi-faceted training opportunities provided by Hydra, Schilling added, “We usually get this a couple of times a year, although this is a big thing. You’ve got the Army engineers here, who are doing a really kick-ass job of keeping the runway working. And they are doing some of their training also, because they’re dropping cargo bundles as well. And it’s also a chance for the contingency response group [part of the USAF 615th Contingency Response Wing] to test out their stuff as well.” “The special tactics squadron is a critical element of actually running this operation,” he continued. “It’s the CRG’s operation. We’re here to support them. But, at the same time, it’s a chance for us to knock out training.”
And that additional training is extremely critical in ongoing real-world STS operations. “This is part of what we do—supporting these joint operations to support rescue or relief missions,” Schilling observed. “But the other thing we do—the guys I have deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan right now function as JTACs, joint terminal attack controllers. They are guys who work with other special operations forces, and they coordinate and control airstrikes, behind enemy lines, with those other special operations forces. For instance, most of my guys in combat today, right now, in Afghanistan, are attached to a Special Forces ODA [Operational Detachment– Alpha].”
“Our guys are very highly trained special operations guys. It takes two years to produce one of my guys. And three out of four guys who are qualified and physically fit enough to enter that two-year pipeline either quit or can’t make it somewhere. So it takes two years to produce a guy and for every four guys I put in I only get one guy back. And then from that point their training really starts. In approximately a year and a half to two more years to get them up to speed with their advanced skills—HALO jumpmaster, JTAC certification, combat dive supervisor,” he said.
“We also do demolitions and we blow something up every 30 days because we have to, not because we like to,” he smiled. “We would never enjoy blowing things, up but we have to do it every 30 days. My guys also shoot a lot. They do a lot of tactical movement. It’s a very demanding and long list of complex skill sets. More examples include Level One avalanche training. We work up on the mountains and spend a lot of time in the snow. My guys all have their own backcountry all terrain bindings and skis. We also use snowshoes.
“My guys can go anywhere and do everything,” he concluded. “That’s what we do. But what we’re doing here is that we are landing airplanes in support of the CRG, because we enjoy working with the CRG.” ♦