Precision engagement team hits the mark

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Kristina Barrett
  • 506th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
KIRKUK AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  Cloaked in secrecy and veiled in silence, they wait patiently for a sign. Working as a team, the spotter silently communicates with his partner. As the sharpshooter looks through the scope, the world shrinks to one small target.

It doesn’t matter the object is a half-mile away because he is confident he can put the bullet where it needs to go. The mark may be anything -- a person, an aircraft or a car. "One shot, one kill" is a way of life.

Enter the Air Force countersniper Close Precision Engagement team, a valuable asset for keeping Airmen alive and striking fear into the enemy.

Leaving behind the “hunter-killer” stigma, these CPE teams perform an air base defense mission: thwarting enemy attempts and gathering intelligence to keep Airmen safe both on and off base.

“CPE teams fulfill a role of providing another layer of protection with our base defense mission of protecting the installation,” said Capt. Michael Borders, 506th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron operations officer. “But by serving in a fire support role, the Airmen provide valuable information for combat patrols outside the confines of the base.”

Typical sniper missions include reconnaissance and surveillance, anti-sniper defense, target-of-opportunity selection and anti-materiel tasks such as the destruction of military equipment.

“One of the duties we perform is route reconnaissance,” said Senior Airman Jessie Gonzalez, a countersniper with the 506th ESFS. “We communicate with patrols and the base, and provide an overwatch of the area being patrolled so if the patrol gets in trouble, we are there to help.”

Help comes in the form of an M-24 sniper weapon with a range of about 800 meters and a five-round magazine. The team also carries with them an M-4 for use by the spotter.

“The M-4 provides suppressive fire just in case we get in close proximity to danger,” said Senior Airman Michael Montanez, CPE team member. “It’s equipped with an optical gun sight that is better than the average weapon, which means we can engage targets further out but also have the capability of shooting in close.”

A CPE team works as one -- the spotter and the shooter -- and the roles are interchangeable. Here, they aren’t just supporting operations, they also are proving the effectiveness of training.

Deployed to Kirkuk is Master Sgt. Michael Walker, a CPE course instructor for the National Guard Marksmanship Training Center Sniper School at Camp Robinson, Ark. He has the opportunity to see how the countersnipers are being employed.

“Being here and experiencing the environment our graduates are in allows us to see what their capabilities are once they get out into the field,” Sergeant Walker said. “We can compare what we’re teaching them at the school and how it applies to the real world.”

One curriculum change being looked at, Sergeant Walker said, is teaching Airmen to operate in a featureless terrain.

“Being in this environment allows us to see what really happens here and adjust our curriculum,” he said.

Part of what is taught in the course are intelligence gathering and reporting. Since the CPE teams can move under the cover of darkness, they can observe insurgent activity and deny them the opportunity to strike.

Part of this training involves an almost daily “keep in memory” game. Students are shown a group of similar objects that they must remember hours later without writing them down. To make the game harder, many variables are thrown their way.

“You are put under mental or physical stress in the form of noise of physical activity and then must be able to remember what you saw,” said Senior Airman Jonathon Lamme, CPE team member. “This teaches us to be familiar with our surroundings so we can determine what is different or if something doesn’t belong.”

In this war, intelligence kills more people than putting bullets downrange, Airman Gonzalez said.

Plus, in a country where the next improvised explosive device may be just around the corner, the Airmen prove to be a valuable line of defense, Sergeant Walker said. These Airmen also excel against the odds in a school where the pass rate is only about 40 percent.

”You have to really want to do this job,” Airman Gonzalez said. “This is something I’ve always wanted to do. That’s why I joined security forces.”

Airman Lamme agreed.

“The job sounds much more glamorous than it is,” he said. “But I’ve always wanted to do this kind of work. We are very well-rounded Airmen. We offer more capabilities to the unit.”

Or as Sergeant Walker describes them: professional, well-trained and motivated. And waging psychological warfare on the enemy with their reputation.