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NCO kicks up dust in Afghanistan

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Stacia Zachary
  • USAFCENT Combat Camera Team
FORWARD OPERATING BASE GARDEZ, Afghanistan --  Rotor blades sound in the distance. Ground control radios the aircraft. Helo is five minutes out. Soon, a Blackhawk hovers overhead - kicking up sand and debris. Military personnel and civilians receive a signal to board. The crew lifts off for another stop.

Mission complete. Next mission up.

Staff Sgt. Benitra Colvin is not your typical ground controller. Originally assigned as an operations manager for the Paktya Provincial Reconstruction Team, the sergeant soon found herself training alongside an Army ground traffic controller. Soon she immersed herself in on-the-job training on how to schedule flights, talk to aircraft and reroute travel during inclement weather conditions.

"I am always up to try something new and when this job came up, I was both excited and anxious," said Sergeant Colvin, a 9-year veteran from Headquarters Air Combat Command, Langley AFB, Va. "The hardest part for me is talking to the aircraft. I had never even turned on a radio (before) the first time I talked to an aircraft. There's a lot of static and it's very hard to hear but it was so exciting."

So why the additional tasking as a ground controller - something so far removed from Sergeant Colvin's original tasking?

When the Army's 161st Calvary Squadron was preparing to redeploy, there wasn't an immediate replacement from the Army's 140th Calvary Squadron. There needed to be active continuity yet there was a vacant slot waiting to be filled.

"(Sergeant Colvin) has succeeded in everything I have thrown at her, so when this vacancy opened, I thought, 'Why not her?" said Army Capt. Brett Evans, Paktya PRT operations director. "She immediately showed an aptitude for this job."

While her current Air Force specialty is in information management, Sergeant Colvin has lately begun considering other career possibilities.

"Doing (scheduling and ground control) has made me see there is more to life than working with computers," she said. "It has made me rethink my career field and I am going to put a package in to cross train into air traffic control as soon as I get home."

Sergeant Colvin has all the confidence from her boss to continue in this career.

"(Sergeant Colvin) has shown she has what it takes to succeed because she can keep a level head and open mind," said Captain Evans. "She's a leader and can operate in any environment efficiently. She's very much what (the military) needs right now."

This deployment has given the sergeant a lot to rethink.

"When I first began working with the Army, I thought they were just mean and didn't want to work with the Air Force," Sergeant Colvin said. "When I was learning how to work ground control, though, I learned they are direct. In the end, I have learned that being direct is the best way to get the job done. This experience has given me an entirely new outlook on (our sister services)."

As for the creature comforts, interacting with the people of Afghanistan has given her a whole new perspective of what America has to offer.

"You realize how much material things really do mean to you when you suddenly don't have them," Sergeant Colvin said. "I have a whole new appreciation for concrete, (convenience stores and fast food restaurants)."

More than anything, though, this deployment has helped reaffirm the sergeant's decision to stay in the Air Force.

"I am a lifer," she said. "This deployment has broadened my horizons and I am more in touch with what it takes to get the mission done on a more personal scale."