Volunteers help keep Airmen safe by searching vehicles

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Melissa Phillips
  • 407th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
ALI BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  Several Airmen here recently received a small taste of what it is like to part of security forces for a day when they volunteered to help at the visitor control center search pit here.

“Providing security for the base is our first duty as Airmen,” said Senior Airman Ben Abbott, a 407th Expeditionary Communications Squadron network maintenance technician. “The security forces members perform this duty full time, but as (Airmen, force protection) is a part of our job as well.

“I volunteered because it’s something different and interesting to do before I leave here,” said Airman Abbott, who is deployed from McConnell Air Force Base, Kan.

Airman Abbott’s normal duty day is spent installing and maintaining the many infrastructure cables around the installation that provide the people here with network, Internet and telephone access.

“(The 407th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron’s Airmen’s) job is probably harder than most of us with office jobs. They risk their lives every day, so I thought I could endure it for a day,” he said.

Visitor control center workers are responsible for inspecting more than 500 people and more than 120 vehicles daily. The center comprises several sections that ensure the safety of people assigned here.

Workers requesting entrance to an installation must show their credentials and process through guarded barricades, while their travel toward the center is monitored by multiple heavy weapons on overwatch positions.

Once inside the search pit, dog handling units and people hand search 100 percent of the vehicles. Another element of the visitor center inspects, identifies, documents and provides identification badges to people requesting access to the installation.

Volunteers are only able to work at the search pit because of the extensive training required at other center positions.

For the most part, one day blends into the next at the visiting center, with a seemingly endless flow of people requesting admission for a variety of construction, delivery and contracting projects on base.

Although most customers want nothing more than to quickly process through and are not there to cause trouble, the crew cannot let their guard down for a moment. They never know who is going to pull up to gain entry to the base: friend or enemy.

“It’s a good day when no one dies and nothing blows up,” said Staff Sgt. Ed Dean, the 407th ESFS search pit leader, who is deployed from Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. “We are the first line of defense, and if a bomb gets through us, it affects the entire mission.”

Although the search pit crew has not found any explosives, they routinely find contraband items such as knives, pornography, alcohol and cell phones, which can be used to detonate bombs and take photos.

Drivers are known for finding clever places to hide illegal items. All the knowledge the visitor center’s crew absorbs is passed on to the volunteers, so they can locate hiding places and secure vehicles before transient workers are allowed to drive into the heavily populated areas of the installation.

Airman 1st Class Adam Gaither, a 407th ESFS search pit crewmember, sees volunteers at the center as a plus. Not only do volunteers help alleviate the time it takes to process long lines of vehicles waiting to gain access to the base, he said they also provide a fresh set of eyes to look for potential dangers. Knowing the volunteers specifically requested to help the crew also goes a long way on morale.

“Working with good people makes the day go by faster,” said Airman Gaither, who is deployed from Charleston AFB, S.C.

After all, climbing up tiny staircases and jumping in and out of big rigs is not the easiest line of work, especially when it is 120-plus degrees and there are long lines of impatient drivers piled up waiting to have their vehicles searched.

“Sometimes I think we look like Spiderman trying to (maneuver) into all the positions (to properly search through the vehicles’ various compartments which can serve as potential hiding places),” Sergeant Dean said.

Minus superhuman powers, the visitor center specialists rifle through everything outside and inside the vehicle looking for anything that registers on their senses as out of the norm. It takes continual dedication to base defense and the people inside it to ban complacency from creeping in and taking over.

“The next time you find yourself moving through a base checkpoint, thank these individuals for their service, because what you may see as simply ‘gate guards’ or ‘vehicle searchers,’ I see as hardened defenders ensuring your safety -- ready to fight at a moment’s notice,” said 1st Lt. Jared Hoover, the 407th ESFS visitor center officer in charge, who is deployed from Charleston AFB.

“Security forces defenders make first contact with everyone entering the base and they never know which vehicle may contain an improvised explosive device or which individual trying to gain access may be wearing a suicide vest,” he said.

“At night, when most of the base sleeps, these defenders stand at the main gate judicially discerning which vehicles will be allowed entrance,” Lieutenant Hoover said. “They’re always waiting to make first contact with terrorists who want nothing more than to see the death of as many coalition forces as possible.”

The people assigned to the center are dedicated to acting as a buffer to prevent a breach in security, which could harm personnel here, and now so are a few of their fellow warfighters in various career fields throughout the base.