Security forces complete tour in 'area of operations'
National Guard Bureau
Release Date: 9/22/2003
By Tech. Sgt. Gregory Ripps, 149th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas - "You can travel for hours," said Master Sgt. Robert Johnson, leader of a 13-member team from the 149th Security Forces Squadron. "After a while, it all begins to look the same."
Mile after mile of desert. Only several checkpoints and a few burned-out vehicles break the monotonous scene. The heat is stifling, but the convoy and its escort continue. The only sounds are the constant drone of truck and HMMWV engines and the occasional spoken words of team members. Their weapons locked and loaded, they keep their eyes are on the horizon.
A speck appears and grows. It is another vehicle moving at a high rate of speed toward the convoy. To the relief of the convoy and its escort, the stranger stops and keeps its distance. It was another uneventful day, for which they were thankful, but it was a day too much like too many others without any days off for Johnson and the 12 other members of the team.
The Texas 13, as they called themselves overseas, is a fire team of the 149th Fighter Wing's security forces squadron from Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. Before they escorted convoys, they had been elsewhere in the Operation Iraqi Freedom area of operations. Their first mission was to help convert a small civilian airfield into a military base.
"It was a real bare-base situation," said Master Sgt. John Worch, their supervisor back home. "They had to take with them everything they needed to be self-sufficient."
This meant building a pallet that included such items as weapons, ammunition, night-vision equipment, flak vests and even an all-terrain vehicle before they left.
"The active Air Force has full-time people to ensure the items are ready to go," Worch explained. "The National Guard has to rely on traditional Guard members to do the job, sometimes coming in on their own time."
Setting up at the base required the team to dig ditches and establish a secure perimeter. There was no heat for the early-spring desert nights, and air conditioning for daytime came later and then only for some tents. Although the "cops" were accustomed to real-world deployments to fully operational bases, their training paid off.
"The situation really brought us together as a team," said Tech. Sgt. Duke Soriano, an assistant team leader. "We had to work together to get the job done. We had weekly meetings in a tent. Just getting together and having soft drinks together became special times."
The team spirit would serve the security forces members well when, after two months, they were picked for convoy duty.
"We escorted two kinds of convoys," said Johnson, who as team leader also served as convoy commander. "One kind was to escort military members to an airfield. This was easier and more frequent. The other kind involved escorting convoys of food and medical supplies, small-arms munitions, water and fuel to an Army staging area. We drove to it one day and came back the next. We alternated in this duty with another air security forces unit."
The two Air Force units found themselves responsible for Army convoys. They used three HMMWVs to escort between 12 and 30 18-wheel trucks. One HMMWV took the lead, the other the end, and the third traveled in the middle.
The 149th SFS members carried M-16 rifles, M-9 pistols, M-60 machine guns and M-203 grenade launchers. Although truck drivers carried side arms, they relied on the team to protect them. The convoys traveled at a high rate of speed, stopping for nothing except the checkpoints.
According to Soriano, if they were attacked, one HMMWV would lead the convoy to safety while the other two would oppose the attackers. Although their convoy was never attacked, they received intelligence reports about threats -- and about other convoys that had been attacked.
"Sometimes we wondered if we would make it," Soriano conceded.
Potential attacks were not the only concern.
"The heat was the most difficult part of it," said Staff Sgt. Manuel Mauricio, another assistant team leader. "It would get up to 130 degrees during the day. In the convoys, there was no way to get away from it."
Another concern was harder to measure.
"Once a group of boys threw rocks at us," Mauricio said. "It brought home to me that we were in a foreign country where some people considered us an enemy." Soriano had a different impression of the people. "Everywhere we went, I could see a look of appreciation. I felt honored to serve my country."
They felt handicapped by their inability to communicate with the civilian populace. They were directed not to initiate communication. "But we were given cards with some phrases, such as 'Stop' or 'Stay away,' if a situation arose," Johnson said. "As it turned out, our team never had to use one."
A copy of that card, along with a considerable amount of other useful information they had obtained and compiled as a result of their own experiences, became part of continuity binder that they left for the unit that would succeed them.
One moment stood out near the end of the team's tour when, between convoys, a member received news from his brother in San Antonio, Texas, that the home team had won the 2003 National Basketball Association championship.
"The Spurs are the world champs!" shouted the member from atop a vehicle. Another member, who had packed a Spurs T-shirt, fetched the item, which they proudly displayed in a photograph taken in front of a poster of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The news was a happy reminder of home but also a heavy reminder they had been in the area of operations for months without a day off.
"We didn't know when we were going home," Mauricio related. "We were told we would go home after another team did, but the order would constantly change. When we finally got the word we would be leaving in a few days, we didn't know whether to believe it."
But finally it was true. At last they were going home. And their welcome after their arrival in San Antonio was even more gratifying than some had anticipated.
"We expected our family members would show up," Mauricio said. "We didn't expect so many people - other unit members, news media - plus all the signs, flags and packages."
"It was one of the best things I've ever seen," Soriano added. "I sighed in relief to be home."
Like many other Air National Guard security forces members, the 13 Texans had been on duty somewhere in America's war on terror since October 2001. Before they ended up in the OIF area of operations, they had performed force protection duties at other locations, either within the United States or abroad.
"We know we did a good job," Soriano said. "Now that they know what we can do, they'll probably call on us again."
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
