First Reserve unit conducts TASER training

  • Published
  • By Ian Carrier
  • 482nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
HOMESTEAD AIR RESERVE BASE, Fla. (AFNS) --  The 482nd Security Forces Squadron here recently became the first unit in the Air Force Reserve Command to complete training with TASER guns, adding a new, nonlethal option to their arsenal.

Security forces members must undergo extensive training to be qualified to carry a TASER. Training includes hours of classroom instruction, TASER familiarization, voluntary exposure and scenario-based training. The scenarios not only include instructions on how to use the TASER, but help users hone their judgment on when it is appropriate to use, or in some cases, not use.

The training was conducted by members of the Miami Beach Police Department.

Lt. Juan Lemus, the 482nd Security Forces Squadron Police Services chief, was one of the trainees who took part in the voluntary exposure. Electrodes from a TASER were attached to the volunteers' back, and for five seconds, they felt what it was like to be on the receiving end.

"It's like nothing you have ever felt before," Lieutenant Lemus said. "They call it riding the lightning, and it is well named. One minute your fine, and then they said 'TASER, TASER, TASER' and then it hits you and your muscles lock up... and you don't see anything else, your mind is totally on the pain going through your entire body."

The TASER gun fires probes that can stun a person for a period of up to five seconds, allowing security forces personnel time to seize control of a potentially violent situation.

Upon impact with the target, 50,000 volts of electricity run through thin copper wires, resembling fishing line, with prongs on the end of the line that attach to the perpetrator and deliver the voltage, temporarily disabling them. The prongs are to be released only by medical professionals, when they arrive on the scene.

Multiple safety and accountability mechanisms are used with the TASER. Each time a TASER is fired, "confetti" containing a serial number corresponding to the cartridge is expelled and allows tracking back to the TASER unit and the individual.

TASER guns have been in use worldwide by Air Force security forces personnel since 2002.