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SFS trains IqAF security forces

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Levi Riendeau
  • 321st Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BAGHDAD --  The 447th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron spent several weeks in March and April training 12 Iraqi security forces personnel from New Al Muthana Air Base on force protection techniques. Their reasoning? The Iraqi air force can have the best flight operations in the world, but it means nothing if they can't secure the air base.

Fourteen security forces members took time to train the Iraqis on procedures and techniques used every day by the U.S. Air Force.

"They're getting the basics they need to understand the base defense process. It's basically straight out of our curriculum," said 1st Lt. Jacob Stephenson, deployed from the 171st Security Forces Squadron, Pennsylvania Air National Guard.

The instructors taught base-protection measures including combat tactics, combat life saver procedures, duties while on post and made sure the Iraqis were qualified on the AK-47, the Iraqi air force's weapon of choice.

Among the instructors were Senior Airman Branden Smithwick and Staff Sgt. Tyler Elliott - both currently assigned to the 447th ESFS. Normally protectors of the base themselves, they had the opportunity to teach the Iraqis what they do every day.

"I expected them to be kind of like I was in technical school, where they have the basic information, and we would expand on it," said Airman Smithwick, a native of Washington, D.C., deployed from the 647th SFS, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. However, as classes started, it became apparent that wasn't the case.

"The level they were at was a lot more advanced than we expected," said Staff Sgt. Tyler Elliott, a native of Springfield, Ohio, deployed from the Ohio Air National Guard. "That allowed us to step up the training."

The Iraqi airmen didn't stop impressing there. They continued to show their experience throughout the course.

As training culminates in graduation, the certified Iraqi students of this class will become the instructors.

Just ten days after graduation, they begin a new course where they will teach other IqAF security forces members what they learned here. This begins what Lieutenant Stephenson expects to be a continuing effort.

"We're training them so they can help train other Iraqi security forces," the Pittsburgh native said. With these students becoming the instructors, the Iraqi air force is postured to produce future generations of defenders.        

"We're ensuring they're at our level before we leave," Lieutenant Stephenson said.

IqAF security forces now have the tools to protect their airfield, both now and long after the U.S. Air Force transitions out of Iraq.