Special Operations Forces

Special Operations Legend Keller Gives Back to Vets, Police

A Special Operations legend among his peers has been on operations on all over the world. Bob Keller has been a Ranger, a Green Beret and now is in a non-named ‘secret unit’ in Special Operations Command. But he’s giving back to his peers and the law enforcement officers in his community.

Keller is nearing the end of his military career but runs his own company, Gamut Resolutions which is a practical shooting and tactical training firm in Florida. He’s helping out veterans and especially the police forces which don’t get a lot of range time in their individual departments.

Now, as he nears retirement, rather than seeking a lucrative consulting or contracting job, Keller is giving back — giving back to other Special Operations veterans through extensive charity work and giving back to local law enforcement officers. He’s teaching SWAT teams the shooting techniques that kept him alive through countless engagements — for free — through his start-up training firm, Gamut Resolutions.
“The quality of training he’s capable of delivering is simply the best. If you think of it on an academic scale, Bob is at the PhD level in terms of tactics and shooting — even better than a PhD level. He goes above and beyond,” said retired Sgt. Major Jeremy Morton, who served with Keller in Special Operations. “His research and his thesis are based upon his own experiences.”
Keller is founder and CEO of Gamut Resolutions, a shooting and tactical training firm for the public, corporate groups and law enforcement agencies.
But individual cops he’ll train for free.
Keller also created his own charity, Operation Blue, a year ago based on the SOCF model, after he learned how little time police actually get to spend at the range. He doesn’t draw a salary from the training he provides to these officers.
“I get them to the range, get them shooting their guns, get them more familiar with them. It’s ridiculous how these police departments only shoot once a year for their qualifications,” he said. “After hearing that, I set up a program where they can spend two full days with me at the range shooting.”

Keller supports many charities but began his own because he saw a specific need for the police officers that don’t get enough range time. The training and real-world experience he lends to the officers may save their lives one day.

To read the entire article from the NewsChief, click here:

Photo courtesy Bob Keller

Russian Military Buildup in the Arctic Has US Concerned

Russian President Vladimir Putin is beefing up his military forces in the Arctic on a scale that hasn’t been seen since the days of the USSR and the Cold War. He’s reopening closed bases and opening new ones in a bid to control the cold but natural resource-rich region

One such base holds the 80^th Motor Rifle Arctic Brigade where Putin put on a dog and pony show for the press complete with tanks, snowmobiles, even dog and reindeer sleds in a show of force projection.

Located near the border with Finland in the Murmansk region, the Soviet-era base was refurbished and formally opened in 2015.

Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia has launched the biggest military build-up in the Arctic since the fall of the USSR — bolstering its fleet of nuclear-fueled icebreakers, reopening abandoned Soviet military bases and building a string of new ones.
Russia isn’t alone in its Arctic ambition. The United States, Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland all lay claim to the area and its abundant natural resources.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the Arctic may contain 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30 percent of its natural gas. And thanks to climate change, melting polar ice is expected to make drilling, mining, and shipping even easier.
With billions of dollars in potential profits at stake, the race to control the region’s riches is on.
Russia is trying to claim 460,000 square miles of the Arctic Ocean as its national territory — an area that includes the North Pole. Russian divers even planted a national flag on the North Pole seabed in a symbolic claim to the region’s energy riches.
Washington is watching closely. Asked about Russia’s military build-up in the Arctic at his confirmation hearing, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said it was “not to our advantage to leave any part of the world” to others.

With tensions rising again between the US and Russia, the highest since the Cold War, is the Arctic going to be the new German frontier in the escalation of arms?

To read the entire article from the NBC News, click here:

Photo courtesy AP

On This Day in 2011, Navy SEALs Eliminate Osama bin Laden

In one of the most daring raids in US Special Operations history, during the early spring of 2011, US Navy SEALs of SEAL Team 6 or DEVGRU raided the compound of Osama bin Laden in Abbottobad, Pakistan and killed the terrorist leader, who was living less than a mile from the Pakistani military academy.

The raid took place at 1:00 a.m. on May 2 in Pakistan but in the US, it was mid-afternoon on May 1^st. The operation called “Neptune Spear” was a joint CIA, JSOC operation with SEALs and aviators from the 160^th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (The Night Stalkers) flying specially designed stealth helicopters on the mission.

But the operation was actually in the works for several years before it was finally unleashed by President Obama.

The Intelligence Prep: The CIA found out the name of bin Laden’s courier as early as 2007. This was considered a high-value intelligence coup because the CIA learned thru their Black sites and thru interrogations at Guantanamo Bay that bin Laden communicated only via couriers. He stopped using phones since the US tracked a cell phone of one of his subordinates and the US launched a missile strike on the location in Afghanistan back in 1998.

The courier named Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed according to Pakistani officials and his brother lived at the Abbottobad compound with bin Laden. The CIA picked up a wiretap of another individual and the courier and CIA paramilitary operatives tracked the man back to the compound.

The compound then became a focus of intense scrutiny. The CIA had a female analyst that had been on bin Laden’s trail for nearly five years. She earned the team’s and superiors’ respect and she believed with 100 percent certainty, that bin Laden was living there with his youngest wife and children. It was built in the 2004-2005 timeframe and was at the end of a long, narrow dirt road. It was outside of the main area of Abbottobad and about 100 miles from Afghanistan.

The compound cost about a million dollars to build and was constructed on a plot of land much larger than the surrounding properties. Walls 12-18 feet high surrounded it and were topped with 2 feet of barbed wire. There were two security gates and the property had no telephone or internet service. Unlike their neighbors, the inhabitants didn’t put their trash out for collection but burned it inside the compound.

The family lived on the second and third floors of the structure and the third-floor balcony had a seven-foot-high privacy wall installed to conceal the tall (6’4’’) bin Laden. The “principal” was seen in intelligence photos every day pacing in the garden that was partially covered with a tarp. The CIA analysts called him ‘the Pacer”. But the photos couldn’t positively identify the target.

In trying to gather more intelligence, the CIA used a fake polio vaccination program to gain entrance to the compound and rented a home nearby where they could keep up surveillance on the potential target.

Despite intense efforts, the CIA was never able to get a picture of the third-floor inhabitant or get a recording of his voice. But after exhaustive intelligence analysis, the CIA deemed that only bin Laden could be living there.

Planning the Operation: The job of planning this fell to Adm. William McRaven of JSOC. He assigned a Navy captain from DEVGRU to set up the plan of a raid with the help of the agency at the CIA HQs in Langley, VA.

There was also talk in using B-2 Stealth bombers but the problems that arose from that plan was that they’d have no way of confirming the death of bin Laden after the raid and the use of the 2000-pound radar-guided JDAM munitions was sure to cause civilian casualties in the area.

The idea of using the Pakistanis in a joint operation was quickly discounted as everyone up the chain of command believed that the leaks that would quickly follow would compromise the mission.

Therefore, since the US isn’t at war with Pakistan, the members of the team were taken off military roles and placed as civilians under the CIA control for the duration of the mission.

The agency and DEVGRU built a mockup of the compound in Harvey Point Defense Testing facility in North Carolina, and another in Nevada. The SEALs still were not told what their target was or its location. Nevada was chosen because, at 4000-foot altitude, it would be close to the actual altitude of the target and test the helicopters’ capabilities.

A full-scale replica was built in Afghanistan at Bagram Air Base. The raid team arrived on the 27^th of April at Jalalabad where the operation would base out of. A CH-47 Chinook helicopter with a quick reaction force would be placed nearby in case the unit had to fight their way out of Pakistan. The entire operation was to last 40 minutes.

The order was given at 1:22 p.m. EST on May 1 for Adm. McRaven to proceed with the raid. The President and members of his Cabinet watched the events unfold from the Situation Room at the White House via a Drone flying overhead.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011.

The Operation: The raid force consisted of 79 operators and a dog. The dog team was to be used if there were hidden rooms or compartments that needed to be searched. The Chinook with the QRF of 24 SEAL operators was landed in a deserted field about halfway to Abbottobad in case they were needed on the ground. Another QRF in Chinooks with an addition 25 SEALs would be waiting just over the border in Afghanistan.

After a 90-minute flight, the first of the Blackhawks deployed over the compound where the SEALs were to fast rope to the ground. A second was to land in the compound with the dog team and interpreter. However, due to a weather phenomenon, the first Blackhawk crashed into the compound sliding up onto the security wall. No one was seriously hurt. The second landed outside the compound where the operators scaled it and began the operation.

Using an assortment of breaching tools and explosives the teams began clearing the compound in a methodical, dance of death. The SEALs cleared the guest house and the ground floor of the main building where two men and woman were dispatched quickly. Numerous other women and children were encountered and they were flex-cuffed and moved outside where they’d be found and questioned by the Pakistanis.

The SEALs moved to the second level of the main building where they killed bin Laden’s son on the staircase before moving up to the top floor. There they found bin Laden, wearing the traditional loose-fitting garb of the region. Later it was found out that he carried 500 Euros and two phone numbers sewn into the lining of his clothes.

Nearly 15 minutes had elapsed since the SEALs crash-landed in the compound until they came face-to-face with him on the third floor. The killing of bin Laden is described in detail by Navy SEAL Mark Bisonette who was later reprimanded by the Navy and forced to give up his $6.8 million dollars in royalties from the book he wrote of the incident. But his first-hand account was riveting.

When the team reached the top, bin Laden was behind his wife, with his hands on her shoulders and was pushing her towards the SEALs. The SEAL who shot bin Laden Robert O’Neill has also written a book about the incident. He was the first in the room. Bisonnette’s book describes in detail what happened next.

“We were less than five steps from getting to the top when I heard suppressed shots.”
BOP. BOP. “The point man had seen a man peeking out of the door on the right side of the hallway about 10 feet in front of him. I couldn’t tell from my position if the rounds hit the target or not. The man disappeared into the dark room.”
“In his death throes, he was still twitching and convulsing. Another assaulter and I trained our lasers on his chest and fired several rounds. The bullets tore into him, slamming his body into the floor until he was motionless.”

Bissonette’s role called for him to photograph the body to positively identify it as bin Laden and confirm for the government that they had indeed got their man.

“It was strange to see such an infamous face up close. Lying in front of me was the reason we had been fighting for the last decade. It was surreal trying to clean blood off the most wanted man in the world so that I could shoot his photo. I had to focus on the mission, right now we needed some good quality photos.”

One of the SEALs (pseudonym Will) spoke Arabic and asked one of the children on the third floor who the dead man was. She replied that it was indeed Osama bin Laden a fact that was confirmed by his wife who was lightly wounded in the foot.

“Will knelt down and asked the girls, ‘Who is the man?’
The girl didn’t know to lie.
‘Osama bin Laden.’
Will smiled.
‘Are you sure that is Osama bin Laden?’
‘Yes,’ the girl said.”

The SEAL team leader had a satellite phone and immediately call Adm. McRaven to relay the code phrase that bin Laden was dead.

“‘For God and country, I pass Geronimo,’ Jay said. Geronimo E.K.I.A.’ “

The entire assault took just 15 minutes. Now the team set about finding intelligence that they could bring back with them to Afghanistan. The SEALS recovered three AK-47s and two pistols, ten computer hard drives, documents, DVDs, almost a hundred thumb drives, a dozen cell phones, and “electronic equipment” for later analysis as well as a large stash of opium.

The crashed helicopter was stripped of classified material and then blown in place, with the team placing enough explosives to completely demolish the crashed Blackhawk. Down one chopper, the team brought in one of the Chinooks to exfil the team back to Afghanistan.

After arriving in Afghanistan, bin Laden was positively identified via facial recognition and DNA analysis and his body was transferred to the USS Carl Vinson where he was buried at sea. The US had contacted Saudi contacts offered to turn bin Laden’s body over to them for burial in Saudi Arabia. But they didn’t want him in death any more than they did in life. They agreed with the burial at sea option.

Aftermath: Reports were being leaked out about bin Laden’s death so President Obama addressed the nation at 11:35 p.m. and confirmed the news.

“Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, and a terrorist who was responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.”

The President decided not to release the photos of bin Laden’s body stating that “we don’t have to spike the football here.” And despite the DNA evidence and confirmation from his wife and daughter at the scene, the non-release of the photos created a conspiracy theory that he wasn’t dead.

The Pakistanis then began to do damage control and arrested the owner of the CIA’s safe house and five Pakistani informants. The doctor who helped the CIA with the fake polio inoculation ruse was arrested and sentenced to 33 years in prison.

Some of bin Laden’s correspondence was released but very little of it has come to light. One interesting tidbit was that bin Laden stated that both General David Petraeus and President Obama should be assassinated if the opportunity availed itself but that VP Joe Biden should remain untouched. Why?

In bin Laden’s own words, “Biden is totally unprepared for that post [of president], which will lead the US into a crisis.”

The tail boom from the crashed and destroyed Blackhawk was eventually returned to the US but not until the Pakistanis allowed Chinese scientists to study the stealth technology in the boom as well as in the paint.

This was one of the better-executed raids in US Special Operations history. The detailed planning, outstanding execution, and professionalism of all of the operators involved, even when things went wrong as they invariably do is a testament to their dedication to their craft and level of training.

In doing so, they rid the world of one of the worst terrorists in history.

Photo courtesy of DOD

SOF Selection PT Preparation 5.1.2017

SOF Selection PT Preparation 5.1.2017

Happy Monday, let’s kick off the week with a good workout of the basics of pushups, sit-ups, and crunches, then to the bar for V-ups, pull-ups, and dips before a 3-mile run.

Training:

More preparation for the UBRR

2 x 1-minute Pushups

2 x 1-minute Sit-ups

2 x 1-minute, Crunches

2 x 1-minute, V-ups

2 x Dips as many as possible to muscle failure

2 x Pullups as many as possible or to muscle failure

3-mile run

Stretch well after completion

SOF Selection PT Preparation 4.30.2017

A Sunday morning rucksack march after a quick warm up of pushups and sit-ups. Stretch well both before and after the ruck march. Remember to drink plenty of water and stay hydrated out there. The weather is warming up and it is very important. And the other thing is again, to ensure that you have at least two pairs of boots broken in for the course.

Training:

Warm up

2 x 20 Pushups

2 x 20 Sit ups

8-mile rucksack march over varied terrain. Try to keep your pace better than the standard. And mark your times in your workout log book.

Stretch well after completion

SOF Selection PT Preparation 4.29.2017

We hope everyone enjoys their weekend, but first head to the gym for a shoulder and back workout followed by a 3-mile run. Remember, preparing for selection there are no days off. Log your numbers down in the workout notebook

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 10 Lat Pulldowns, rear

3 x 10 Barbell Dead Lift

3 x 10 Wide Grip Pullups

3 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

3 x 10 Seated Bent-Over Delt Raise

3 x 10 Dumbbell Shoulder Press

3 x 10 Arnold Dumbbell Press

3-mile run

Stretch well after completion

Chinese Launch Aircraft Carrier a Sign of Increased Power In Asia

The Chinese have launched the country’s second aircraft carrier, but the first to be manufactured domestically as they grow in power and look to project it more and more in the region.

The unnamed carrier should be operational by 2020 and for now, will continue to be outfitted in the port city of Dalian. With tensions running high around North Korea with the US, the Chinese will be looking to counter the US at every turn.

The Chinese have one operational carrier, the Liaoning, which was a Soviet-style carrier that the country bought from the Ukraine and has refurbished. While technologically not on par with their US counterparts, it carries 50 aircraft and can be a formidable weapon.

The sight of a bottle of champagne hitting the bow of a new Chinese-built aircraft carrier will worry many.
Western military intelligence will be poring over the television footage. For them it’s not emotional: cold calculations are being made.
They see a not quite finished vessel, a few years from full service, partly based on Soviet-era design.
It’s technologically inferior to the ten aircraft carriers being used by the United States Navy – but there’s no doubt that it’s a big step for China.
China’s aircraft carrier programme is a state secret, but it’s hard to imagine this country being satisfied with two of them.
The US says all options are on the table to remove North Korea’s nuclear weapons – and it is using the USS Carl Vinson battle group to press the point.

The carrier’s launch was attended by Fan Changlong, the vice-president of China’s central military commission. It will be powered by conventional propulsion rather than nuclear. And according to Chinese military sources, the carrier will carry the Chinese J-15 aircraft which are based on the Russian SU-33 design. They are rumored to be a “semi-stealth” variant.

To read the entire article from The BBC click here:

Photo courtesy Reuters

Special Forces Honor COL Bob Howard (MOH) With Building Dedication at Camp Mackall

The Special Forces community in an act that many considered long-overdue, honored the memory of one its most decorated soldiers, Colonel Robert Howard by dedicating the central classroom to him at Camp Mackall.

The Rowe Training Facility is where all Special Forces soldiers receive their classroom instruction when at Camp Mackall. And Howard spent nearly his entire life in helping to train, lead and inspire Special Forces Green Berets.

His son, Robert Howard Jr. was on hand for and helped dedicate the building to his father’s memory.

Bob Howard in Vietnam with MACSOG operators prior to a mission.

The event, organized by the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, was attended by Howard’s family and more than 100 current and former Special Forces soldiers.
Many had stories about Howard, who was wounded 14 times during nearly five years of combat in Vietnam, earned a battlefield commission and was thrice recommended for the nation’s highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor, in the space of a little more than one year.
He was awarded the medal once and also received two Distinguished Service Crosses, a Silver Star, Bronze Star Medal for Valor with three oak leaf clusters and eight Purple Hearts, among many other awards and decorations.
Howard spent 36 years in uniform, officials said. He worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs following his retirement from the Army in 1992 until 2006. He died Dec. 23, 2009, at age 70, following a battle with cancer.
“Contemporaries describe him running alongside an enemy truck one night, tossing a claymore mine into the back among the startled enemy and detonating it,” said Gen. Raymond A. Thomas III, the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command.
“They describe a time he saw two (Viet Cong) on a motorbike throwing a grenade at a group of soldiers,” Thomas said. “He grabbed an M-16 from a startled security guard, calmly dropped to a knee to shoot one of the (Viet Cong) and then chased the other one half a mile to shoot him, too.”
Howard’s fitness and toughness was legendary, Thomas added while relating how — as a company commander in a Ranger Battalion — Howard was known to casually pick pieces of shrapnel out of his arm as he ran without slowing down.
“There have been too many books and movies of late about special operations, but the Col. Bob Howard story almost defies a movie script and his character would be right out of central casting,” the four-star general said.

There are so many stories about Howard and his toughness but he wasn’t all about himself and although a proud man was a very humble one. He touched so many soldiers’ lives and the most amazing thing about him were, all of the stories are true.

Why there isn’t a movie made about him yet is a good question. It truly needs to get done. But in the meantime, all would-be Special Forces soldiers will walk into the classroom that bears his name.

To read the entire article from The Fayetteville Observer click here:

Photo courtesy US Army

A Tough Week for Special Forces Illustrates Sacrifice That Are Still Made Daily

This week has been a tough one for our Special Operations Forces. Yesterday we learned of a pitched firefight with ISIS terrorists in Afghanistan that resulted in two soldiers’ deaths and another being wounded. Then later the news was released of a former actor turned Green Beret sergeant in Ft. Lewis, Washington took his own life.

These incidents both illustrate the tough nature of the job and illustrate that the sacrifices made every day by our forces never stop even when they come back from the fighting that is permeating the Third World today.

On Wednesday, the two U.S. troops that were killed and one wounded were taking part in a raid against ISIS in the same area of Afghanistan that the US dropped the MOAB, officially known as the Massive Ordnance Air Blast but known as the “Mother of All Bombs. They were partnered with Afghan Security Forces and got into a heavy firefight.

What is known at the present is that both men were seriously wounded and evacuated to a hospital but that both men died en route. The other operator was slightly wounded but his injuries weren’t considered life-threatening and he reportedly remained in the battle.

Their enemies were an offshoot of the terrorist organization also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria called Islamic State-Khorasan Province, or “ISIS-K.”

“The fight against ISIS-K is important for the world, but sadly, it is not without sacrifice,” said Army Gen. John W. Nicholson, commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan and NATO’s Resolute Support mission.

“On behalf of all U.S. forces and our coalition partners, I offer our deepest sympathies to the families, friends, and fellow service members of our fallen comrades,” added Nicholson.

The soldiers’ identities haven’t been released yet pending notice to the families.

The other news released yesterday was Army Special Forces Sergeant Michael Mantenuto died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at Ft. Lewis, Washington. In another in a tragic case of suicide, Mantenuto became another statistic in an all-too-familiar pattern of depression taking our soldiers.

Mantenuto was widely known from the 2003 film “Miracle” about the 1980 US Olympic hockey team and he portrayed Jack O’Callahan in the film opposite Kurt Russell. He appeared in a couple of other films before enlisting in the Army in 2010.

He went through the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) in 2013 and graduated as a Special Forces Communication Sergeant. He deployed in the US’ war on terrorism, Operation Inherent Resolve, the fight against ISIS. He was a K-9 dog handler with the 1^st SFG(A) as well as a communications sergeant.

He was lauded for starting a Youth Hockey Program for kids at Ft. Bragg all while attending the “Q-course” or SFQC. He also started a substance abuse program there. He was 35 at the time of his death and left a wife and two children

Our warriors face so many challenges and dangers in the war on Terrorism. And for many of them, the return home doesn’t necessarily mean an end to the terror and depression that war can cause. The number of veterans committing suicide every day is an astounding 22.

The three deaths this week in the Special Operations community exemplify the sacrifice our warriors make on a daily basis and the dangers that are inherent within our career field. While the units will close ranks and continue the mission, we also won’t forget their sacrifice. Because the cost in human lives is very expensive.

Photo courtesy of DOD

Air Force Combat Controllers the “Under the Radar” Special Operators

When one talks about Special Operations Forces or operators in the US we immediately think of Navy SEALS, Delta Force Operators, Green Berets and MARSOC Raiders but the almost forgotten member of the SOF fraternity are the USAF’s Combat Controllers.

They are usually a part of most of the missions you’ll see the above-mentioned units in, especially the Direct Action missions where close air support is nearby. But these troops do more than just call in the airstrikes, they can provide command and control and direct air traffic in remote areas, setting up airfields, and take an active role in the mission. They’re very versatile, well-trained in HALO, Combat Diver (SCUBA), and fast roping.

Having worked with the men of the scarlet beret, I can attest that they’re excellent troops and don’t get the credit that they deserve. So how do these operators who fly under the radar get trained? Let’s take a look at the two-year training cycle for CCT.

To begin with, this is always one of the Air Force’s most critically under strength career fields. There are only about 500 Combat Controllers on the books so they truly are a minority in the Air Force. Their training consistently washes out close to 80 percent of the men seeking to wear the scarlet beret.

Selection: Their Selection Course is just two weeks but it stresses the candidates to the max and identifies the right ones that will go on to the Combat Controller Operator Course. Some of the events that candidates must pass are push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, a 1.5-mile run, 500-meter swim, 4-mile ruck march, and an obstacle course.

Something the Air Force does to help the candidates prepare for Selection is to send would-be Controllers a 26-week training guide to help them get ready. About half or 50 percent of the candidates fail to meet the standards for Selection

Combat Controller Course: Once successfully passing Selection, the students will move to Keesler AFB, Mississippi for the meat and potatoes portion of their training. It lasts about four months and consists of intense physical training on the beaches with running in soft sand, sprints, firemen’s carries, buddy drags, and burpees to simulate real-world combat scenarios.

The rest of their days in the classroom are spent learning to be air traffic controllers alongside other airmen. The direct different airframes, run tower operations and are certified by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) as air traffic controllers at the end of the course. But for the Combat Controllers, this is just the first step.

Then their off to Ft. Benning, Georgia for the Army’s Jump School. The three-week course gets them ready to leap from aircraft using static line parachutes and infiltrate denied areas by using aircraft.

Survival Training at Fairchild AFB, Washington follows. The two-week basic survival course teaches airmen the rudimentary lessons of surviving in the wilderness in the case of an aircraft crash in a remote area or being cut off from friendly forces.

The controllers then go thru an intense 13-week Combat Control portion of their training at Ft. Bragg/Pope Air Field, North Carolina. Here they get their ground training in. Patrolling, land navigation, demolitions, communications, and fire support are among the myriad of training skills that they will learn and be tested on.

At the successful conclusion of their training at Pope, the airmen will don the scarlet beret and be considered combat controllers. But they still aren’t considered ready for deployment yet.

The airmen have passed the course but before they go out on deployments they must first attend Special Tactics Advanced Skills Training at Hurlburt Field, Florida. The training, which lasts from 12-5 months is intense and puts them in every conceivable condition that they may face in combat. They face different phases of training, ground, water, employment and full mission profile.

The full-mission profile is as close to real combat as the Air Force can replicate in the United States. During this phase of their training, certain controllers will be further tasked with learning HALO training at Ft. Bragg/Yuma, or Combat Diver in Panama City, Florida as additional methods of infiltration.

After all this training, they get sent to one of their operational units. There, the airmen of the CCT are likely to be sent individually to augment a SEAL or Delta Force team, a Special Forces A-team or a Ranger unit that is deployed in harm’s way. The Air Force has awarded seven Air Force Crosses for heroism since the Global War on Terror (GWT) began in 2001. Combat Controllers have been awarded five of them.

Photo courtesy of US Air Force