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From Army Times.
Working alongside soldiers, airmen are future of joint ops
By Bruce Rolfsen
Staff writer
The two dozen airmen of 5th Expeditionary Air Support Operations Squadron are living the roles of the future of joint operations.
They are joint terminal attack controllers, radio operators, weathermen and liaison officers.
Every day, “battlefield airmen” are an operational link between the Army and Air Force. The lessons learned by these airmen and hundreds of others in Iraq and Afghanistan will be tomorrow’s curriculum for airmen preparing for the war.
They have been in Iraq since July, supporting Army units, most deployed from Fort Lewis, Wash.
The squadron had hoped to use a version of the Stryker customized for JTACs. A shortage of the specialized Strykers put those plans on hold.
Instead, the airmen travel in a command version of the Stryker, often sitting near the patrol’s commander.
The JTACs and radio operators go on patrols several times a week with the Army units they are partnered with, said Tech. Sgt. Christopher Spann, a JTAC and superintendent for the deployed squadron.
Spann is on his fourth deployment to the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones since 2001. During the previous deployments, Spann was assigned to Army special operations teams, and he traveled light.
Now, as a squadron superintendent and the deployed unit’s senior noncommissioned officer, he spends more time with paperwork than he does in the field.
He does have the chance to mentor the new controllers.
“Everyone I’ve been around is top-notch,” he said. “They step up and do what they need to do.”
Spann’s commander is Lt. Col. Jeffrey Wilson, who made his first trip over Iraq in 1991 as a B-52 pilot. Now an air liaison officer, Wilson has seen from the ground some of the targets his bomber struck at Baghdad International Airport.
“As a lieutenant, I didn’t expect to be back here on the ground,” Wilson said.
Senior Airman William Walden is a joint terminal attack controller deployed to Forward Operating Base Marez in northern Iraq. Aside from an attack that wounded him badly enough to earn a Purple Heart, Walden said this tour has been quiet compared to his stay in Mosul two years before. On that tour, Walden said, the controller he was assigned to as an apprentice called in airstrikes. That hasn’t happened so far on this tour.
Much of the controllers’ job in the Mosul area involves working with jets flying what the Air Force calls “nontraditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance,” the airman said. Instead of a fighter using its targeting cameras to aim a bomb, the cameras observe what is going on below, often close to the ground patrols.
At other times, the controllers will direct aircrews to fly over in a show of force to discourage insurgents from attacking patrols or convoys.
Although Walden wears the three stripes of a senior airman, as the JTAC assigned to the 5th Battalion, he is the air power adviser to the Army unit’s fire support officer and commander, a lieutenant colonel.
Spann said JTACs have to be prepared to explain the reasons behind their advice and to disagree with their Army superiors.
“Always stand for what is right,” Spann said.
Sometimes that means having to explain why releasing a bomb is the wrong decision. “We can’t just bomb stuff these days,” he said.
While deployed, the airmen try to be indistinguishable from their Army partners.
The airmen live in Army quarters fashioned from steel cargo boxes and wear the Army’s combat uniform with its distinctive digital camouflage. The idea is that airmen with the Army on Mosul’s city streets will be less of a target if they look like soldiers.
“You don’t want to be the one standing out,” Spann said.
Bruce Rolfsen covers the Air Force.
Working alongside soldiers, airmen are future of joint ops
By Bruce Rolfsen
Staff writer
The two dozen airmen of 5th Expeditionary Air Support Operations Squadron are living the roles of the future of joint operations.
They are joint terminal attack controllers, radio operators, weathermen and liaison officers.
Every day, “battlefield airmen” are an operational link between the Army and Air Force. The lessons learned by these airmen and hundreds of others in Iraq and Afghanistan will be tomorrow’s curriculum for airmen preparing for the war.
They have been in Iraq since July, supporting Army units, most deployed from Fort Lewis, Wash.
The squadron had hoped to use a version of the Stryker customized for JTACs. A shortage of the specialized Strykers put those plans on hold.
Instead, the airmen travel in a command version of the Stryker, often sitting near the patrol’s commander.
The JTACs and radio operators go on patrols several times a week with the Army units they are partnered with, said Tech. Sgt. Christopher Spann, a JTAC and superintendent for the deployed squadron.
Spann is on his fourth deployment to the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones since 2001. During the previous deployments, Spann was assigned to Army special operations teams, and he traveled light.
Now, as a squadron superintendent and the deployed unit’s senior noncommissioned officer, he spends more time with paperwork than he does in the field.
He does have the chance to mentor the new controllers.
“Everyone I’ve been around is top-notch,” he said. “They step up and do what they need to do.”
Spann’s commander is Lt. Col. Jeffrey Wilson, who made his first trip over Iraq in 1991 as a B-52 pilot. Now an air liaison officer, Wilson has seen from the ground some of the targets his bomber struck at Baghdad International Airport.
“As a lieutenant, I didn’t expect to be back here on the ground,” Wilson said.
Senior Airman William Walden is a joint terminal attack controller deployed to Forward Operating Base Marez in northern Iraq. Aside from an attack that wounded him badly enough to earn a Purple Heart, Walden said this tour has been quiet compared to his stay in Mosul two years before. On that tour, Walden said, the controller he was assigned to as an apprentice called in airstrikes. That hasn’t happened so far on this tour.
Much of the controllers’ job in the Mosul area involves working with jets flying what the Air Force calls “nontraditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance,” the airman said. Instead of a fighter using its targeting cameras to aim a bomb, the cameras observe what is going on below, often close to the ground patrols.
At other times, the controllers will direct aircrews to fly over in a show of force to discourage insurgents from attacking patrols or convoys.
Although Walden wears the three stripes of a senior airman, as the JTAC assigned to the 5th Battalion, he is the air power adviser to the Army unit’s fire support officer and commander, a lieutenant colonel.
Spann said JTACs have to be prepared to explain the reasons behind their advice and to disagree with their Army superiors.
“Always stand for what is right,” Spann said.
Sometimes that means having to explain why releasing a bomb is the wrong decision. “We can’t just bomb stuff these days,” he said.
While deployed, the airmen try to be indistinguishable from their Army partners.
The airmen live in Army quarters fashioned from steel cargo boxes and wear the Army’s combat uniform with its distinctive digital camouflage. The idea is that airmen with the Army on Mosul’s city streets will be less of a target if they look like soldiers.
“You don’t want to be the one standing out,” Spann said.
Bruce Rolfsen covers the Air Force.
