Commando Warrior facilitates inspection

by Airman 1st Class Marianique Santos
36th Wing Public Affairs

10/9/2012 - NORTHWEST FIELD, Guam -- At some point in their career, security forces Airmen are required to make a trip to a regional training center to make sure they have the skill sets to execute their mission downrange. In Asia-Pacific region, Andersen Air Force Base's 736th Security Forces Squadron Commando Warrior Flight not only prepares the Airmen for deployment, but also facilitate command-level readiness inspections.

The Commando Warrior flight is in charge of the Pacific Regional Training Center, making sure that security forces Airmen to the region are always ready for deployment.

"We cover all the bases for pacific: Eielson, Kadena, Hawaii, and so on," said Senior Airman Benjamin Nelson, 736th SFS Commando Warrior flight PRTC instructor. "Occasionally, we get a few Airmen from the U.S. fulfilling their pre-deployment requirement when there is no training going on in the U.S."

The Commando Warrior training is conducted here with a 15-day refresher training culminating to a 73-hour field training exercise. During the FTX, the Airmen execute contingency missions and defend simulated forward operating base Commando Warrior.

Within the two weeks of training, they train on mounted and dismounted patrols, counter improvised explosive device threats, counter insurgency operations, team movements, individual movements, land navigation and tactical combat casualty care.

"As security forces, we don't know when we might get deployed," said Airman Nelson. "If something happens we can be tasked immediately to go down range. That's why it's important to send security members to this training and make sure that they are proficient in executing their mission."

Along with fulfilling pre-deployment requirement, the Airmen from 18th Security Forces Squadron from Kadena AFB, Japan, was simultaneously training and being evaluated by the Pacific Air Forces Security Forces Inspector General for this year's readiness inspection.

"The day shift right now is comprised mostly of Kadena Airmen," said Airman Nelson. "PACAF IG is here evaluating them as we conduct our own evaluation. We try to get the IG requirements squared away before we get back on our own."

Conducting the readiness inspection PRTC allows PACAF to assess and evaluate the unit's force on force objectives.

"From the inspector's perspective, having the training center here gives us the most realistic evaluation of the Airmen and their ability to conduct force on force operation," said Capt. James Hagemier, PACAF SF IG. "Being in a FOB and not having comforts that they usually have allows them to focus on what their mission is, giving us the closest thing to actually seeing what they would do down range or in support of operations."

The freedom to use blanks and pyrotechnics and setting up ambushes without disrupting the day-to-day mission of a base gives the instructors, as well as the IG, the freedom to throw in more elaborate scenarios and see how the Airmen will react in a plethora of situations.

"It enables us to make a more legitimate assessment of their force on force capabilities because we could put them in scenarios that we might not be able to facilitate in their home stations," said Captain Hagemier. "We can actually provide more realistic scenarios where they would have to adapt and overcome."

It has been a long time since a readiness inspection has been conducted with pre-deployment training, but Captain Hagemier said that they plan to conduct readiness inspection pluses this way whenever they are able to schedule everything accordingly.

"It was already established that it is one of the better ways to conduct this type of inspection," said Captain Hagemier. "It gives us an opportunity to leverage all the capabilities here and bring that grade back with us when we conduct that actual inspection."

The PRTC instructors also facilitated the field training exercise in a way that allowed the IG and Commando Warrior scenarios to flow seamlessly.

"The students have no idea what's going to be inspected by me and which ones will be inspected by the instructors so they just come in and do their mission to the best of their abilities," said Captain Hagemier. "The students performance is a testament to the awesome program the PRTC team has here. The level of training the Airmen receive coincides with the importance of the mission they will be doing downrange."

The members of the Commando Warrior flight have been down range and use their experiences to create the best and most realistic training environment for their fellow security forces members.

"We are a small cohesive team," said Airman Nelson. "I work with great individuals everyday to try and make our regional training center as effective and realistic as we can within the realm of safety."

"For those who have not deployed, we want to make sure that the students can react and know what it's like to react and fire under stress," he continued. "We try to provide them the training that would prepare them for anything that they would have to face as security forces Airmen."