SOUTHWEST ASIA – For some, deployments are an opportunity for Airmen to perform their duties in an overseas location, while helping to support a mission different than back at home. However, there are deployments available to Airmen to serve in an all-together different capacity than their original career fields.
Airmen assigned to the 407th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron force protection team, have been selected for other country national duty.
OCN duty is an alternate duty required by the Air Force in deployed locations to maintain operational security and safety concerns associated with bringing contracted workers onto an installation. Some Airmen are tasked, others volunteer, but all members of this team are comprised of Airmen with different Air Force specialties. OCNs are typically people from neighboring countries hired through contracts to work projects to improve the base.
“A force protection member is tasked with surveying, relaying and disseminating information,” said Staff Sgt. Brent Stamps, a 407th ECES force protection team lead. “Our job here is to assist OCNs to ensure that no critical operational security information or personally identifiable information leaves this installation. We are essential to mission success by preventing our adversaries from accessing our critical information.”
An average work day for Airmen assigned to force protection begins before sunrise. Each member must report to work early enough to properly prepare for their assigned detail for the day.
The force protection team is responsible for escorting and monitoring over multiple daily projects inside the area of responsibility, with new projects beginning sometimes at a moment’s notice based on mission necessities.
These details can range from fixing mission critical assets to escorting OCNs as they accomplish general construction projects throughout the installation barrier.
"We escort jobs that help the base sustain, grow and to support a unit’s mission inside the area of responsibility,” said Master Sgt. Gary Armstrong, 407th ECES force protection superintendent. “We are a critical appendage to the base. Without us, projects cannot be completed.”
Each and every detail mitigated by the team helps the base in an important way.
“We have a motivated group of individuals who are here day in and day out who look forward to coming to work,” said Stamps.
Force protection Airmen come from different jobs and home stations from around the Air Force. For some, it comes as a change of pace, for others it serves as a new adventure.
Special duties such as force protection not only allow Airmen new experiences in providing security and stability, but can open a door to new responsibilities that can last throughout their career.
“It’s something new and it’s something fresh,” said Armstrong. “Nobody has been trained right out of basic training to be a force protection member, but our Airmen come in, get trained quickly and then it is time to perform. It’s fast paced.”