Force-protection airmen keep alert

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Bob Oldham
  • 407th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
TALLIL AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  With service and delivery contracts totaling more than $1.2 million and about 160 local nationals or third-country nationals on base at any one time, someone has to keep an eye on the workers.

That duty falls to a team of about 50 airmen assigned to the force-protection section of the 407th Civil Engineer Squadron.

“(The team is) extremely valuable,” said Senior Master Sgt. Bobby Castleman, chief of maintenance engineering and force-protection team superintendent deployed here from Kadena Air Base, Japan. “Tallil Air Base cannot function alone. Vendor supplies, water deliveries, replacement equipment parts [and] contractor support (are) needed.”

The force-protection team consists of airmen from a variety of career fields who volunteer for the duty and keep a watchful eye on people while they are on base working, said Staff Sgt. Christina Common, assistant noncommissioned officer in charge of the force-protection team. Sergeant Common is deployed here from Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, where she normally works as a surgical technician.

On any given day, an airman could be assigned to escort contractors as they pick up trash around base, or they could be selected to watch contractors clean latrines and showers within tent city.

While some duties are better than others, almost all agree that latrine duty ranks right at or near the top, said Staff Sgt. Thomas Olson, an F-16 Fighting Falcon crew chief deployed here from Luke AFB, Ariz.

“A lot of the guys would rather have it because it is a shorter detail,” Sergeant Olson said.

It takes less than six hours for contractors to service the required stops on the latrine run. Other escorts, such as the laundry contractors, can kill 14 hours of a force-protection airman’s day.

Sergeant Olson said every airman brings something from their respective career field to the table for the force-protection team. For him, it is an aircraft maintenance expediter mentality.

“Getting people where they need to be, and trying to do your best to take care of them,” he said.

A typical day begins at 5:45 a.m. with a morning roll call, then breakfast. After a bite to eat, the airmen gather at the base’s visitor control center to escort their assigned contractors on base. When a contractor is finished, he is escorted back to the center to be processed off base.

As airmen monitor work, they are also alert for any potential terrorist activity. Escorts are assigned to watch the employees to verify they have no weapons, do not use any communication devices or write information about where they work or what they see while on base.

“For the most part, (the workers) are happy to have a job, making money,” Sergeant Olson said. “We have had some who’ve asked way too many questions like ‘What goes on inside of buildings?’ That throws up red flags. Some might want to go to a certain area that they’re not supposed to and that also throws up red flags.”

Escorts report all suspicious activity up the chain of command, so the appropriate agency can take action.

“The personnel deployed here as force-protection escorts are one of our first lines of defense,” said 2nd Lt. David Cohen, the base’s anti-terrorism officer deployed here from Cannon AFB, N.M.

With insurgents and terrorists in Iraq looking for ways to exploit American military installations, force-protection specialists must stay on guard, keeping a keen eye on the people they are charged to observe. The specialists are key players in a multilayered force-protection plan.

“Every airman is a sensor,” the lieutenant said.

Without the force-protection team, base leaders have two options. They could pull airmen from their day-to-day duties to perform the escort duties, or airmen would be tasked with additional duties, such as cleaning latrines and showers daily, officials said.