Security Forces Airmen embrace combat mission

Published April 21, 2009
By Staff Sgt. Zachary Wilson
AFCENT Combat Camera Team

TIGRIS RIVER, Iraq -- A white Nissan pickup truck approaches a squad of American servicemembers on a patrol near Iraq's Tigris River outside of the village of Bakr, about 5 miles north of Joint Base Balad.

Master Sgt. Anthony Fleming, the team's squad leader, sounds the alert, but Senior Airman Daniel Cooper already sees the truck. As Airman Cooper holds his hand in a fist for the driver to see, the truck cautiously slows to a stop as several other members of the squad surround the vehicle, preparing to inspect the inside of the truck and its occupants.

While the stop - referred to as a "snap traffic control point" - is not out of the ordinary for a patrol in Iraq, the people performing it are - they are U.S. Air Force Airmen assigned to the 532nd Security Forces Squadron, one of the only security forces units in the theater performing combat patrols outside the base to which they are assigned.

As members of the base's quick reaction force, or QRF, the Airmen have a number of responsibilities that were previously being handled by U.S. Army units based at JBB.

"Our role as members of the QRF has three parts," said Senior Airman Brian Hafner, deployed from Creech Air Force Base, Nev., where he serves as a combat arms instructor at Silver Flag Alpha, the Air Force's ground combat school for security forces members. "We patrol outside the confines of the base to ensure the area is clear from threats, we investigate holes in the perimeter and we are on-call to respond to downed aircraft in the area."

The majority of the unit's mission focuses on the first part, the patrols outside of the base's perimeter and within the communities that neighbor the base. For many members of the squadron, the mission is a dream come true.

"This is as good a deployment as there is in security forces," said Airman Hafner, who entered the Air Force after previously serving with the U.S. Marine Corps and took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. "I really enjoy what I do."

For the Airmen patrolling the Tigris, sometimes the day starts early, with members of the squad arriving at their squadron in the dark and early hours of the morning to ensure their vehicles and equipment were ready for the patrol later that day. The squads could be out for as many as 10 hours before coming back to Balad to prepare to do it again the next day.

The 532nd Security Forces Squadron, part of the 332nd Security Forces Group headquartered at Balad, is the Air Force's largest deployment of security forces since the Vietnam War, according to Capt. Steve Ohlmeyer, the 532nd SFS' officer-in-charge of the QRF.

"The group stood up in October 2008 and has more than 800 defenders made up of not only Air Force, but also other Coalition partners," he said. The other squadron within the SF group is the 332nd Security Forces Squadron, which provides more traditional security forces for the expansive base.

Captain Ohlmeyer's QRF is made up of several squads, or approximately 130 individual Airmen who perform the outside-the-wire mission in the area and typically conduct patrols several days a week followed by two days of QRF stand-by at the squadron.

During the two stand-by days, they remain ready to respond to situations a moment's notice. They also get one training day, where SF Airmen can either perform maintenance on gear and vehicles or get training on techniques such as air assault operations or underwater training.

For the 532nd, their unique mission takes them outside of the confines of the base into the surrounding areas that include the local villages, waterways such as the Tigris River, and the many orchards and fields that surround the base where insurgents can hide weapons, fire mortars at the base or conduct attacks.

"Our presence pushes the enemy back from our perimeter," Capt. Ohlmeyer said. "It makes it much harder for them to attack the base."

Sergeant Fleming noted that in this area, formerly known as the "Sunni Triangle" where many attacks against Coalition forces occurred through the pre-surge years of Operation Iraqi Freedom, there are still threats in the area in the form of weapons trafficking and in-direct mortar fire launched at Balad from the area.

"Our mission is terrain denial," Sergeant Fleming said. "We set up snap TCPs, check on vehicles, ask for IDs and hope we get lucky, kind of like finding a needle in a haystack."

However, reflecting the spirit of cooperation with the Iraqi citizens who are neighbors to Balad, Sergeant Fleming and his team go above traditional search and clear tactics to find what they need.

"As part of a (counter-insurgency mission), we make sure we are kind with the citizens and we build rapport with them," he said. "We don't want to come out point-blank and say 'Hey, where are the insurgents?' - the scope of our mission has gone beyond that."

Sergeant Fleming and Captain Ohlmeyer demonstrate this as they strike up a conversation with the driver of the Nissan while the other squad members search the vehicle.

"How are you doing today?" Sergeant Fleming asks the driver with the help of the squad's translator.

The driver responds politely and the two engage in a dialogue on local farming conditions and the master sergeant furthers the conversation by asking the driver about the performance of the local government and whether his needs were being met.

The conversation continues for nearly 15 minutes, long after the SFS Airmen have cleared the truck and returned to their defensive positions. Once the driver determines he is ready to leave, he waves to the Airmen as he drives away and tells them all to have a nice day. While no items of intelligence value were uncovered, Sergeant Fleming believes that encounters like this are critical to the work his team is doing in the area.

"This approach has worked very well," he said. "They are more friendly with us (than maybe they were in the past,) and if you work with them, they work with you."

Moving on from the stop, the team continues to encounter a variety of locals, ranging from Iraqi children and their watchful mothers to local farmers and merchants who all regard the Airmen with robust welcomes on the children's part, or at least nods of acknowledgement from the adults.

Airman Hafner, working with other Airmen to load up their vehicles as they prepare to embark on the next portion of the patrol before returning to base, appreciates the opportunity to make a difference here.

"I really feel privileged to be in a position to do this," he said.