123rd Special Tactics Flight, Louisville, KY

Unsung Heroes

123rd Special Tactics Flight, Louisville, KY

by Technical Sergeant Jon Rosa

Published: January 1998

You get paid to do what?

Imagine if you will, the humid, sweat-soaked coast of Panama in the early evening hours of December 1989. As darkness falls, a select group of military men dressed in camouflage fatigues make final preparations for the evening's festivities: seize and secure Rio Hato Airfield. Their faces are covered with brown, green and black paint. Their hands are covered with nomex (fire retardant) flight gloves. The C-130 transport plane that they will travel in has been airborne for hours. Each of these men is weighted down with 100-150 pounds of equipment, gear they will need to complete this mission. Turning inbound to the airfield, the ramp lowers to reveal a moonlit sky. Seconds later with a green light to jump, they silently parachute into the unsuspecting terrain of Noriega's backyard. Upon landing, the team will establish communications with incoming aircraft, clear the airfield of debris and obstacles, and begin to orchestrate arrivals and takeoffs of what would become a wave of hundreds of transports and helicopters.

Who are these men? They are not Army Special Forces (Green Berets)...they are not Navy SEAL commandos...and they are not Army Rangers. They are the men of the U.S. Air Force Combat Control Teams, and unknown to most Kentuckiana residents about twenty of them live and work in the Louisville area. The job of a Combat Controller is to get to an area by SCUBA diving on the high seas, parachuting behind enemy lines or driving high-speed boats, motorcycles and dune buggies. Once there, run a covert airstrip and provide vital communications, command and control.

The 123rd Special Tactics Flight of the Kentucky Air National Guard is unique in that it is the only Combat Control unit assigned to the Air Guard in the entire United States. Their nondescript "home" is located at Louisville International Airport. Most of the teams training takes place locally at Ft. Knox, Kentucky and Camp Atterbury, Indiana. Because they frequently operate jointly with SEAL, Ranger, and Green Berets in performing their missions, it takes a lot of specialized knowledge and training to become a Combat Controller.

The road into Combat Control begins in sunny San Antonio, Texas. The innocuous name of the first school attended is the Pararescue/Combat Control Selection Course. This training is considered to be the most rigorous in the Air Force. More than three-quarters of those who begin this twelve-week saga do not finish. It is physically and mentally grueling. Here potential team members show whether they have what it takes to enter this highly selective, extremely aggressive, high-risk world of Air Force Special Operations. In addition to physical conditioning, the course also includes marksmanship training, physiological training (altitude and dive chambers), and academic coursework in dive physics. Basic trauma care/First aid is taught as well as evacuation of the injured.

Upon graduation from the selection course, the trainee moves on to specialty training. The first stop is the U.S. Army Airborne School (parachuting) at Ft. Benning, Georgia. Here students learn basic parachuting skills required to be dropped via static-line airdrop. Trainees who complete this training are awarded a parachutist rating and wear the coveted parachutist wings.

From Georgia the prospective controller moves to Key West, Florida for the U.S. Army Special Forces SCUBA School. Here he is taught to use SCUBA to infiltrate areas surrounded by water without being detected. The schedule here is intense, up to twelve hours a day, plus homework. Physical stress is high. The intention is to test a student's comfort level in the water and his ability to withstand extremely high levels of stress, since the control of fear and stress is essential to a combat swimmer. An average of 30 percent of the already hand-picked students drop out during the first week. Overall, your taught search methods, infiltration techniques, submarine operations, ship bottom searches, underwater demolitions, waterproofing and bundle rigging skills later will come in handy to ensure gear stays dry during forays into enemy territory.

After leaving south Florida, training moves to the great northwest, Washington State and the U.S. Air Force Combat Survival School. This course teaches survival techniques for remote areas-using minimal equipment. That means the trainee will eat some bugs and flavor the surrounding plant life! Ultimately he will learn the principles, procedures and techniques, which will enable him to survive regardless of climatic conditions or unfriendly environments.

From there trainees will attend the U.S. Army Military Freefall Parachutist School, tucked away in scenic and historic Yuma, Arizona. This course instructs freefall, high altitude low opening (HALO) parachuting using the ram-air parachute. Each student receives a minimum of 20 freefall jumps, including night jumps at 18,000 feet on oxygen with field equipment attached to their body! High altitude high opening (HAHO) techniques are covered, whereby you may exit an airplane at 25,000 feet and immediately open your chute enabling you to glide silently, many miles to the target. This is considered to be the most fun a student will have during their training.

The primary job of being an Air Traffic Controller is learned next, at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi. This school teaches aircraft recognition and performance, air navigation aids, weather, air traffic control, flight assistance, communication procedures, radar procedures and aviation/air traffic rules. This is the heart of the Combat Controllers job!

Finally the next school culminates about one year of training, the U.S. Air Force Combat Control School at Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina. It is here that potential controllers earn final qualifications. Coursework includes land navigation, tactical communications, demolitions, small unit tactics, jumpmaster procedures, assault zones, and a final rite of passage - the field exercise. Those who complete this and all the previous schools are awarded the red beret. Wearing the red beret is a distinction bestowed upon very few men. It recognizes dedication to training and personal sacrifice.

Currently there are only 403 Combat Controllers worldwide, and they are in need of a few good men. The public doesn't know they exist as a result of Hollywood never making a movie about them. After all, John Wayne was a Green Beret and Charlie Sheen was a Navy SEAL, thereby helping out the recruiting efforts of the Army and Navy.

These modern-day scouts and marathon swimmers are considered the "Unsung Heroes" of the U.S. Military. Combat Controllers have played a vital role in every conflict, war and humanitarian operation since World War II. If the challenge of parachuting, SCUBA diving, outdoor living and a fast-paced lifestyle appeals to you, contact Senior Master Sergeant Bob Martens at (904)884-4246 or e-mail www. martens r@stn.af.mil, Fax (904)884-5119.