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Global Engagement teaches leadership, base deployment

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Larry A. Simmons
  • Air Force News Agency
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFPN) --  Quietly, the military members move through the woods looking for the enemy, scanning for any movement in the trees. Then, shots ring out in the air and they must react as one unit to survive. In that moment, the training they have learned takes over as they capture the enemy and return home safely.

This is just another day at Global Engagement.

Global Engagement is a summer course at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., that teaches cadets the expeditionary Air Force concept of deploying, establishing a bare-base operation, executing their mission, defending their base and re-deploying home.

"We are starting them with the basics of deployment life and we try to make it as realistic as possible of a real-world deployment where anything can happen," said Staff Sgt. Cesar Ochoa, a security forces instructor for Global Engagement.

Global Engagement uses the expeditionary Air Force bare base concept to reach objectives and exposes them several other career field responsibilities while on deployment including security forces, base support and civil engineering.

Cadets learn to establish perimeter security, how to conduct patrols, staff an entry control point and other aspects of air base defense. They also receive hands-on training in bed-down planning, communications, troop feeding, airfield lighting, mortuary, medical operations, weather forecasting, tent construction, recreation and chaplain support. The cadets learn all this while using their new tactics knowledge and communication skills to defend against continuous attacks by opposition forces.

"I have learned a lot of good infantry tactics and it feels about as realistic as it can get," said Cadet 3rd Class Cory House. "Learning the tactics with the right use of communication, we are starting to work together as one unit." 

Cadets are also taught to understand the role of honor on the battlefield and in leadership with special attention to how critical teamwork is to mission accomplishment.

"The training has been going extremely well so far, and the cadets are doing very well," Sergeant Ochoa said. "We are definitely giving them a taste of a real-world deployment." 

"In the heat of the moment, the training kicks in like second nature," Cadet House said. "When I first got here, I was everywhere. But now, I am confident in my abilities if I am ever with an infantry unit. I don't feel green anymore. I'm lovin' it!"

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