Medal of Honor

In an age when air superiority can change the battle zone and the ability to place a two thousand pound bomb on a single building in a small town means keeping the local friendlies… well, friendly. It is amazingly important to make sure that you can get the right air power on time and on target when the need and situation presents itself and be able to react to the changes on the ground fast. That job falls to Air Force Combat Controllers.

Combat Controllers are intensely trained individuals who embed with many US special operations forces in order to provide air traffic and fire control for various missions. These Air Force personnel take control over CAS (Close Air Support) missions where Air Force aircraft need to be directed to targets and organized in the theater of operations so that everything happens as requested.

Imagine if you will the role of an air traffic controller, they manage the flights coming and going and passing through your local airport. They are in charge of monitoring all local traffic and coordinating flights. The civilian version of this job is challenging, to be sure, considering the number of flights moving in and out of any given location but they are at least scheduled. On the other side of the coin, one individual Combat Controller will be in charge of calling in air assets and making them available for air strikes on local targets while coordinating multiple flights, placing drone over flights over potential targets and even has to has to understand how weather conditions impact what assets can operate and for how long. The ‘trick’ that makes this such an amazing concert of activity is that many times this coordination must be done while actively engaged in the battle on the ground!

These combat controllers are trained air traffic controllers but due to the deployed and embedded status with many of the other services special operations troops, they have to be qualified for parachuting (basic and free fall), scuba, small unit and arms work, tactical weapons work and even qualify through survival school on top of the air traffic and combat controller courses they must master. In other words, they must do their own job as well as integrate and keep up with the mission of the special operations forces to which they are assigned.

The next time you’re wondering why a group of Rangers are out in ‘the suck’ and are joined by an unlikely looking Air Force individual you’ll now know that when it comes time to ‘bring the rain’ there’s one guy in the group that all the others look to in order to get the job done.

Go Air Force!

--
Mark Christianson is the Editor-in-Chief of Off Duty Gamers

Tweet