Check out this week’s Air Force Times: Religion in the Air Force, no iPads for AFSOC, SERB board and more
February 27th, 2012 | Air Force Flightlines | Posted by Jeff Schogol
In this week’s Air Force Times:
The Air Force continues to struggle with the role of religion in the military. The new head of the Defense Information Systems Agency recently gave a presentation at his first commander’s call that told airmen to “Always put God first, and stay within His will.”
This comes after Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz issued a memo in September warning service leaders to avoid even the appearance of proselytize.
“My intervention on this issue related to the very special relationship that commanders have with their subordinates,” Schwartz said at last week’s Air Force Association winter symposium. “It is unique. It is something that exists in the armed services that is not replicated elsewhere, and the fundamental point was for commanders to exercise care.”
Meanwhile, Air Force Special Operations Command has canceled plans to buy more than 2,000 iPads to store thousands of pages of flight instructions digitally.
A Toronto-based security and identity management firm claims AFSOC shelved its plan to buy iPads due to security concerns, but a command spokeswoman said security concerns were not a factor in its decision.
Air Mobility Command still plans to buy up to 18,000 iPads or equivalent computers.
In other news, a Selective Early Retirement Board selected 106 colonels for early retirement. The colonels, who have between 21 and 27 years of service, must leave the Air Force by June 1.
And retired Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Ross suffered career-ending injuries when a Navy pilot accidentally shot down his plane during war games in 1987. Now that Navy pilot has been nominated for a promotion to rear admiral. You can read what Ross has to say on the matter.
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Tags: AFSOC, early retirement, Religion, SERB, shoot down, technology
Air Force One-Star to Lead Pakistan Border Probe
November 29th, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Markeshia Ricks
Brig. Gen. Stephen Clark of Air Force Special Operations Command has been tapped to get to the bottom of a NATO airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on Nov. 26.
Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of U.S. Central Command, appointed the rated command pilot as the investigating officer who will lead the probe and deliver a report by Dec. 23, according to the Pentagon.
Clark has been in the Air Force for about 25 years and previously served as the commander for the 27th Special Operations Wing at Cannon Air Force Base, according to his service biography. He is currently serving at AFSOC headquarters at Hurlburt Field, Fla.
Clark will be responsible for determining which U.S., NATO International Security Assistance Forces, Afghan and Pakistan units were involved; which units did or did not cross the border and under what conditions and authorities; what coordination was conducted, what battle damage occurred and the cause of deaths and injuries; and recommendations for improving near-border operations, according to the Pentagon.
Tags: afghanistan, AFSOC, Brig. Gen. Stephen Clark, Gen. James N. Mattis, ISAF, nato, Pakistan, U.S. Central Command
Top honor for combat controller?
September 27th, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Scott Fontaine
Columbist Robert F. Dorr wrote last week about Staff Sgt. Robert Gutierrez, the combat controller who stared down death to call in airstrikes and save his Special Forces A-team.
Dorr, who knows a thing or two about the Air Force, was unequivocal in his writing: “His heroism was unrelenting; his dedication to his service and his country, indisputable.
For his actions, Gutierrez is nominated for an Air Force Cross, the service’s second highest valor award. He should, however, receive the Medal of Honor.
Only the nation’s highest distinction is appropriate for the combat controller, who lost half his blood from a bullet wound yet never stopped fighting, calling in one airstrike after another.”
Part of Dorr’s column (no link available, but a similar column is here) is a plea for more “balance” among the services in the awarding of the Medal of Honor.
We want to hear from you: Do you think the Air Force is being short-changed? Should Gutierrez receive the Medal of Honor? Feel free to add your comments below.
Tags: afghanistan, AFSOC, air force, combat controller, medal of honor
Hollywood comes to AFSOC
July 5th, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Scott Fontaine
Looks like a Decepticon to me. (Photo by Master Sgt. Russell E Cooley IV)
Start with a CV-22 Osprey. Throw in an experienced combat controller. Lots of stuff goes bang.
A JSOC mission into Pakistan? Nah. Try the latest edition of Transformers.
The folks at AFSOC helped make “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” even more action-packed than a usual Michael Bay flick. And people appear to hoover up the action; the movie opened with a $116.4 million showing over the holiday weekend.
About 50 airmen from headquarters AFSOC, the 1st Special Operations Wing and other units helped with the filming at Hurlburt Field, Fla., last September. Shooting also took place at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. (Parts of the flick were also filmed on Freedom Plaza in downtown DC, but that probably only interests you if you’re assigned to that five-sided black hole on the Potomac.)
Bay’s crews were allowed to film a CV-22 in flight over the Gulf of Mexico and over the Florida panhandle. They also provided a bit of technical guidance to help develop one character, a retired chief master sergeant who was a combat controller.
How does one manage to get the Air Force — remember, folks, this is a fiscally constrained environment — to devote the time, equipment and manpower to the blockbuster hit? The Pentagon signed off on the use of a CV-22 for filming “because it offered the unique opportunity to highlight Air Force capabilities and showcase airmen to a worldwide audience,” the service’s top PR man in Hollywood said in a release.
Tags: AFSOC, air force, cv-22, edwards afb, hurlburt field, transformers
It’s what the new AFSOC commander didn’t say
June 27th, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Scott Fontaine
Air Force Special Operations Command has a new top officer, and in AFSOC tradition, the new guy is shrouded in a bit of mystery.
This much we do know: Lt. Gen Eric Fiel arrived at Hurlburt Field after a stint as the vice commander of U.S. Special operations Command. Previous jobs include plenty of other positions at SOCOM, the deputy gig at the Joint Special Operations Command, 58th Special Operations Wing commander and commander of Air Force Special Operations Forces.
But it’s a quote in the press release that makes us think Fiel might want to keep AFSOC’s actions in the shadows.
“Today, AFSOC ████████,” he said. “AFSOC will ██████. We will █████████████████████████████. We will ██████████████████.”
Hey, we kid. But good luck to the new guy. Folks might be talking drawdown, but things are lively as ever for the SOF guys out there.
Tags: AFSOC, air force, hurlburt field, jsoc, socom
Chicken feet, bloody canings and night-vision goggles
June 6th, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Scott Fontaine
Combat aviation advisor trainees and role players guard a U.S. camp during Raven Claw training May 24. No word if they're repelling someone trying to bring in more boiled beef tripe. (Air Force photo by Rachel Arroyo)
Just remember to smile when you’re chewing the fish head.
The public affairs folks at Air Force Special Operations command had an interesting piece about Raven Claw, a week-long exercise at Duke Field, Fla., that helps deploying advisors tackle situations they might face.
The trainees are dropped into “Palmetto Land” to enhance the country with the tactical employment of its aircraft, which the Palmettoites (Palmettitonians? Palmeteors?) will use to fight an insurgency. The 371st Special Operations Combat Training Squadron conducts the exercise.
“The SOF combat aviation advisor environment is one in which a country is teetering on full-out civil war or is in the midst of a full-blown counterinsurgency,” Vincent Milioti, the squadron’s director of field skills training, said in a release. “We are politically, socially, culturally and language-capably trained to operate in the most complex asymmetrical warfare environments.”
The airmen meet with Palmetto Land’s leaders, who might press them to supply night-vision goggles, satellite imagery and gunship support. The trainees also treated to a feast of local delicacies: boiled beef tripe, fish heads, chicken feet and a rice concoction mixed with beef blood and squid.
And don’t think about backing out.
“Their own kids may go without food, but you’re going to get the very best they have to offer,” said Rodney Rapp, the combat aviation advisor mission qualification course director for the 371st SOCTS.
Other situations might turn the advisors’ stomachs for other reasons: The team witnessed a bloody caning of a local airman and had to determine whether to report it as a human-rights violation. (The release didn’t say whether the practice is verboten enough to report.)
Want to get involved? Candidates for the training must already be instructors in their fields. Enlisted airmen must be a staff sergeant or higher, and the average age of a combat aviation advisor is 34 years old.