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Take a walk on the Safe Side

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Marianne E. Lane
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
8/31/2010--JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq --  Here at Joint Base Balad, once a month the 332nd Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron conducts a safe side challenge to test and foster combat proficiency of its members serving at Joint Base Balad. Safe Side Challenges started in the Vietnam Era to test Security Forces knowledge in defending their bases against attacks by hostile forces.

To do so, 12 members of the unit face off as four-person fire teams to improve their combat skills in overall fitness and teamwork. In the end, each member will learn or improve warrior skills and test leadership and followership.

In order to keep a combat mindset, the challenge tests members' physical fitness, knowledge of crater analysis, navigation skills, weapons assembly and law enforcement administration.

The physical fitness portion of the challenge consists of a minute of push-ups, and sit-ups in addition to running a mile and a half. Fitness is important for both the mental and physical requirement needed to quickly react to a situation. Unexploded ordnance recognition and crater analysis identifies the type if improvised explosive device that was used in a simulated hostile attack. The team split up into sections, two people identified the munitions, one identified the compass reading, and one member recorded information. Navigation skills are conducted with a global positioning system and a compass to get from one checkpoint to another checkpoint. The challenge is times so it is vital to know these skills. Weapons knowledge consists of disassembly, assembly, and function checks on the M-4, M-9, and M-249 weapons systems. It is vital to know how to fix a stoppage of a weapon. Lastly, daily job knowledge identifies discrepancies on pre-filled forms to ensure accuracy. There were three forms: statement of suspect/witness complainant, consent for search and seizure, and request for report of action taken on traffic violation.

"The team that won was a disciplined four man fire team trained to bring order to chaos. Our professionalism is designed to ease the minds of victims as we arrive on scene," said Tech. Sgt. Robert Cook, 322nd Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron, assistant flight sergeant, a native of Birmingham, Ala., deployed from the Pentagon, Washington D.C. "The Safe Side ensured that we could do that by providing a stressful physical and mental challenge to validate our skills."

Alpha Flight was the winner of the most recent Safe Side Challenge. The team's members were: Tech Sgt. Robert Cook, native of Birmingham Ala., deployed from the Pentagon, Va.; Airman First Class Trevor Wiley, native of Riverall, Wis., deployed from Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Base, Wy.; Airman First Class Kyle Olsen, native of Coweta, Okla., and Airman First Class Tiffany Holcomb, native of Memphis, Mich., both deployed from Royal Air Force Alconbury, England.

"As Security Forces members deployed to Joint Base Balad, we proudly stand guard 24/7 to protect our fellow service members," said Staff Sgt. Cody Womack, 332 ESFG training noncommissioned officer in charge, a native of Roosevelt, Utah, deployed from Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. "We continue to train and develop our skills to deter the threats of our enemies who are inside and outside of our perimeter."