Fire rescue team supports combat operations

  • Published
  • By Capt. James H. Cunningham
  • 455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) --  The role of Air Force firefighters is changing here, with tents replacing fire station, dirt airfields and, at times, rocket attacks.

In the last six months, a six-man Air Force fire and crash rescue unit has gone on five missions into some of Afghanistan’s most remote areas. There was enough aircraft flow to warrant the services of the only rapid-reaction fire rescue team in the country.

“We’re always prepared to fight fire. That’s the nature of the job. But this is just completely different,” said Master Sgt. Kevin Riehle, chief of forward fire protection, deployed from Scott Air Force Base, Ill. “I never envisioned any of the stuff we dealt with. Never did we expect to be airlifted into and out of hostile areas to support combat ops.”

Although the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing here supports the team, they operationally belong to Combined Joint Task Force-76. The five-member team from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, welcomed the assignment.

“I was actually pleased when I got this tasking. All you hear about on the news is Iraq, and you think Afghanistan is just in the rebuilding phase. I had no idea there were these many combat operations still occurring within the area.”

That was never more apparent than during the team’s last mission to provide airfield fire protection for closure operations at Camp Carlson in Eastern Afghanistan. During the 23 days team members were there, they received three rocket attacks over a four-day period.

During the last attack, insurgents launched six 107mm rockets at them from more than five miles away. The first rocket missed the camp. This gave the team a chance to reach the cover of a 5-foot earthen berm. The next five hit the camp.

“Every time a rocket was on the way we would hear over the radio, ‘Incoming!’ That’s when the whistling of the rocket would come in and we all put our heads down,” said Staff Sgt. Daryl Brannan, supervisor of the forward fire protection team. “We all knew the possibility was there for something bad to happen --but it had never been so close.

“The only thing going through my mind was if another rocket was coming and how close would it be this time.” he said.

No one at the camp was seriously injured. However, their equipment did not fare so well.

“Our fire truck took a single piece of shrapnel that went completely through the cab. A grader near the fire truck had shrapnel go through the engine block and flattened all its tires -- and the body looked as if it was chewed up,” Sergeant Brannan said. “We couldn’t believe how much danger we were really in.

“We know we were lucky,” he said.

The attack was over in 15 minutes. But those images will last a lifetime for the Airmen who found themselves in a place they never imagined.

“I’ve been in 17 years and have said to other services, ‘We’re the guys in the back, our warfighters are the guys up in the air,’” Sergeant Riehle said. “But now we’re finding ourselves on the ground with the Army and I’m meeting all kinds of other guys.”

Sergeant Riehle said, “It’s not just the combat-fire guys. There are combat communications, weather and logistics readiness people -- all in harm’s way. These are all things that 10 years ago no one could have seen us doing in the Air Force.”

It’s a new role that exposes Air Force members to all sides of an operation.

“We’ve seen the good and the bad. We’ve seen the churches and schools that are going up, the new roads, the infrastructure we’re bringing along with our international partners,” Sergeant Riehle said. “That makes it worthwhile -- to see a lot of these things.
“We’ve seen the ugly side, too,” he said. “And being on the receiving end of rockets is part of that.”

Despite the adversity, the team successfully completed all their missions through flexibility and innovation.

“I’ve seen fire guys turn themselves into a runway repair person and fire truck mechanic. There’s never been one time the planes couldn’t land because we weren’t ready for them,” said Sergeant Riehle. “Anything that should have stopped us was overcome. That’s just a testament to the team.”

As they prepare to head home, the experience has brought the team than closer the average fraternity of firefighters.

“We’ve been together every day for almost seven months and at times we get on each other’s nerves. But we’re all ready to our job if something goes wrong,” Sergeant Brannan said.

“As firemen we already have a brotherhood connection,” he said. “But now even more so.”