Deployed TACP's actions saves lives

Published Jan. 31, 2011
By Tech. Sgt. Michael Voss
455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- Imagine an Afghan interpreter, a security forces Soldier, and you are working out in the base gym.

Out of the blue, there's a loud boom so deafening that, instantly, the music you once heard playing on your headphones is replaced by a hollow continuous whistle. The force of the explosion blows the metal entrance door off the hinges and shatters nearly every mirror in the place. You feel a distinct pain in your leg and see blood starting to flow toward your knee.

This is the exact situation Dover, N.H., native, Senior Airman Brandon Cullen Towle, faced Jan. 11 while deployed to Forward Operating Base Connolly, Afghanistan.

Airman Cullen Towle is a deployed tactical air control party member, from the 14th Air Support Operations Squadron at Pope Air Force Base, N.C., who was recently presented the Purple Heart by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz.

On that cold January night Airman Cullen Towle and the camp Southwest of Jalalabad, Afghanistan, were being attacked by a group of insurgents armed with small arms and 81 mm mortars.

As a member of a tactical air control party member, Airman Cullen Towle's training included a 13-week technical school at Hurlburt Field Air Force Base, Fla., three weeks of jump school at Fort Benning, Ga., three weeks of survival school at Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., and a four-week course at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., to prepare him for his duties. But there isn't much like the reality of war to put that training to the test.

As the smoke from the exploded mortar bellowed in the now damaged gym, the 24-year-old TACP grabbed the startled local national and yelled for the Soldier who had fallen off the treadmill as a result of the blast.

"I grabbed the interpreter. He was dazed and didn't know what was going on," said the TACP.

Diving into a bunker, they waited until the attack slowed. Medics quickly worked to remove the shrapnel.

A few minutes, several stitches and some dressings later Airman Cullen Towle emerged from the medical tent, ran to the base's tactical operations center and started calling in airstrikes on his enemies' position.

Within ten minutes, two F-16 Fighting Falcons from Bagram had dropped its load of 500 pound laser-guided munitions on the location securing the base and neutralizing the threat.

After the night fell back to its quiet Afghan norm, Airman Cullen Towle returned to the medical tent. By now, the adrenaline had expired, and the tingeing of pain had returned to his legs.

"The medics gave me Percocet for the pain, and I went to try and get some rest, but the reality of a situation like that is you don't sleep," he explained. "I took a few minutes to call my wife and explain I was all right in case she saw something about it in the news."

Marlena, Airman Cullen Towle's high school sweetheart and wife, reacted the same way that most spouses of a deployed servicemember would after hearing their loved one had been injured from a mortar attack.

"She wasn't happy, but this isn't the first time I have had to call her to let her know everything is alright," he said.

In fact, according to her husband, the North Carolina State University student has received the "I'm ok" call more times then she would like to remember during the course of her husband's two deployments.

"She worries," he said. "Often our (deployed) conversations are one-sided. Marlena will tell me about her day, and I just keep quiet. I don't like her to worry."

To Airman Cullen Towle and the majority of his TACP peers they are not doing anything special, getting shot at or going in harm's way is just part of being a servicemember.

"You're kind of looked at a little different, especially by the Army guys who are in a bad situation, and you and the pilot work together to drop a bomb that helps them out of that situation," Airmen Cullen Towle said.

Today, less than two weeks after the attack, Airman Cullen Towle has rejoined his TACP team to finish the last six weeks of their tour in Afghanistan.

"These are the kind of actions I would hope for in our Airmen from the 14th ASOS. We train them the best we can and can only hope they perform as well as Airman Cullen Towle did that night," said Airman Cullen-Towle's home station and deployed boss Senior Master Sgt. Rick Winegardner. "I'm proud to be a part of the same unit he is assigned to."

To some, living the life of a TACP like Airman Cullen Towle may not be what they'd sign up for, but to him it isn't anything special; in fact, it is just another day at the office.

"Some may think our job is crazy, but I think we are just Airmen doing our jobs," he said.