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Air weapons officer throws punches in the ring, in the sky

  • Published
  • By Capt. Cathleen Snow
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  If deploying for war is like the Olympics of being in the military, then Air Force Capt. James Barber, air weapons officer on the E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft, 965th Expeditionary Airborne Air Control Squadron, has already achieved his dreams.

The 27-year-old Air Force officer fell into the sport of boxing two years ago and has already made a name for himself. He is the Air Force's number one featherweight champion, number three in the Armed Forces and number 10 in the nation.

Besides winning titles, he's earned his share of black eyes and has had the capillaries beneath his skin busted like red and purple fireworks, but all signs of a bold exchange in the ring have disappeared from the fresh-faced captain. He looks barely old enough to serve his country yet he's been supporting the war from a non-disclosed location in Southwest Asia for four months since the beginning of 2010.

BECOMING A BOXER

Deployed from 965th Airborne Air Control Squadron at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., the flat plains held wide-open opportunities. There in 2006, he was introduced to a professional boxer and a whole new world. He began training with him, proving he was a natural. A year into it, he competed in the Air Force box-offs. "The intent was for me to go there and get experience. When I beat everybody, they were at a loss," he said.

At 132 pounds in 2008 and 6 percent body fat, he was able to win the lightweight title. The only problem was he needed five sanctioned fights to compete in the Armed Forces tournament. "I had four," he said.

"I kept fighting locally, getting as much experience as I could," said the captain. Then in 2009 he tried out for the Air Force team fighting at 125 pounds -- a new set of challenges battling the scale.

When training until exhaustion and sweat is coming off you like a waterfall, you still have to stay within 5 pounds of weight. "Every single day you get weighed in," he said. He ate only what he needed to until his veins could be seen snaking across his stomach. One chicken nugget too many could end it.

Besides eating a lot of carbohydrates, he chewed on ice pops. "It was the most physically and psychologically challenging thing I ever did," he said. And he trained that way for almost four months without a break while on the team.

On his rise to getting better, the captain said he also learned the many rules there are in the boxing world.

"Any portion of this part of the glove, this forefront," he explained. "This part touches you above the waist."

When fighting, you cannot hit below the belt, hold, trip, kick, headbutt, wrestle, bite, spit on, or push your opponent, he explained. But, "you can hit from the waist up. You can get shot right here between the belly button. Get shot over here between your muscles (pointing to his side). That's where it's really hard. Getting hit in the diaphragm or the solar plexus."

When he was competing at nationals he had trouble running for a couple of days. "The guy I fought did too," he said. "I've had some pretty wicked black eyes. I was fighting this one guy who was bigger than me for Air Force championship - by the end of fight the capillaries in my shoulders, over here (pointing to his left side then pointing to his face) and the side of my eye, burst from getting hit -- that fast.

"Thank God I won because I couldn't imagine waking up like that and losing," said Captain Barber.

Although the time in a boxing ring may seem short -- three, three-minute rounds with a quick break in-between, in those 11 minutes, there's a lot of action. "A lot can happen," he said.

"You are going to hurt and be tired. You are going to want to quit. You are going to bleed, literally, and then we are going to ask you to do it again. And by the way, you are not getting a belt, or a medal."

Since the boxing season doesn't end, being deployed gives Captain Barber some time off from "getting hit in the head" and time to "maintain and improve" his fitness regime. He even competed in a boxer smoker, where the troops gathered for a friendly competition. They wore big red clown-like padded boxing gloves and fought in three one-minute rounds. The rounds were judged by three professional mixed martial arts fighters who were visiting the troops for morale. After the judges determined Captain Barber won his round, one of them, Mr. Kyle Kingsbury, a professional American MMA fighter, said the captain's win was based on "total domination."

THROWING PUNCHES FROM THE SKY

When Captain Barber is on duty, his work takes him aboard the E-3 Sentry aircraft, an ordinary looking Boeing 707 aircraft other than the 30-foot platelike radar dome balanced on its back which allows the crew to see 150-miles in all directions.

"It's long nights managing the war, helping the guys on the ground who are fighting," he said. He's part of a 23-person team who each have different roles managing the air assets to support the ground wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They monitor consoles for air activity and other battle actions. An average mission lasts 13 hours in the cover of darkness. "We provide the flex," he said.

They are taking the fight to the terrorist networks and insurgents through air battle management.

"We find the best asset for the right job. If the fighter pilots and the bahwmers (bombers with a N.Y. accent) are on a football team they are the quarter backs and the receivers -- all the heavies, tankers and cargo planes, are like the linemen," the captain said. "We are like the defensive and offensive coordinator rolled into one. We're picking plays, moving players in and out, finding the best advantage over the team we are playing (fighting). And we are moving everything out on the field for executing."

"The guys I work with spend so much time studying everything...because if we don't do what we've been trained to do well, the guys on the ground suffer for that," Captain Barber said.

Fighting in the ring is no different. It's a contest of will, self preservation and perseverance requiring constant physical improvement.

"Everything I'm doing in the air, everything I'm doing in the ring -- I'm in a difficult situation and I'm being challenged," Captain Barber said. "I need to make quick decisions. They all come into play. It all just helps me out in the end."

"When I'm in the ring I'm so busy (takes a deep breath and pauses momentarily) assessing my opponent, planning my next moves. Planning and reacting to make them do something I want them to do that I don't have time to think about anything," he said.

HISTORY OF ATHLETICISM

The captain played sports in high school -- football, track and wresting - but kept his nose to the academia grindstone while enrolled at University of Anchorage in Alaska, one of two places where the captain calls home, he received a full Reserve Officer Training Corps scholarship in computer science and math and had no problem acing his grades.

But boxing was always been in the corner of his mind. His grandfather was a boxer who immigrated from Italy in the 1940s to Long Island, N.Y., his other hometown.

"I never got a chance to meet him but my parents gave me his gloves randomly and said 'we thought you might be interested in these.'

"Brand new immigrants had it rough," he explained. That's how his grandfather bloodied his bare-knuckles in smoker fights where men gathered out on the docks, when fighting was a way of life.

His mom said he's tenacious like his grandfather was and although boxing may have started as a distant calling, he said for him it's about learning. "Most people I know who box don't have desire to fight. They just want to know what their physical and mental limits are. Nothing will teach you more about who you are than stepping into that ring against someone who wants to win just as bad as you."

If you look beyond his youthfulness, there's intensity in his dark eyes. It shows up when he begins the ritual wrapping of his hands for protection before covering them with his new black boxing gloves. His eyes narrow and he peers above his poised fists piercing the dead weight as if he's sizing up an opponent. His fists strike with precision and speed -- thud, thud, pow!

A PATH TO THE AIR FORCE

Five years into his Air Force enlistment and this is his first deployment. He says his dad, who was an Air Force enlisted man and chief of security forces, retired when he got commissioned. Several uncles also wore blue stripes. "I think my dad is pretty proud," he said laughingly, "He likes to give me crap for being the first officer in the family."

Like boxing, becoming an officer seemed natural for the captain. Since he grew up in a military family his dad made him the leader of the second set of kids. "There are two very defined sets of three. My sister was in charge of the older kids, and I, the younger ones."

Jokingly, he said his youth leadership position bestowed on him by his father prepared him to be an officer -- which is something he's always wanted. "I just knew that all I wanted to do was contribute and enjoy what I was doing. I wanted to do something that I loved to do. I didn't know what that was yet," he said.

Then he heard about his current career field. "It just sounded like the big picture concept. Making a lot of decisions and putting in a lot of perspectives and getting to travel while doing it. It was an easy decision."

Captain Barber said there are a lot of similarities that can be drawn between fighting in the ring and doing his job in the sky.

"Things will happen in a split second. You have to take everything in and make the right decisions and keep pressing until it's over -- whether it's just a couple a seconds, a couple of minutes, or a couple of hours," he said. "You are like, 'Holy cow, I just did all this stuff.'

"It's extremely difficult to go into a situation when you are tired, you are hurt and all you want to do is just stop and do something else, but you force yourself to follow-through," he said. "The military asks the same thing of folks in basic (military) training."

CONTINUING THE FIGHT

The captain said he's been very fortunate. A lot of people get torn and have to decide between work and becoming a professional. Fortunately everything has worked out for Captain Barber. He's never had to choose boxing over his job. "Timing has been perfect with a lot of the opportunities I've been given," he said.

His leadership has been very flexible. "They have been really supportive." And he loves being an athletic ambassador. He was fighting one of Olympians last year and, "so many people came up to me after the fight, 'I want to join the AF.'"

He's also been fortunate in the ring. "I haven't been knocked down or gotten my nose broken."

As his deployment winds down, he continues to use his time here to train. "I do my runs, strength and condition training. I got all the equipment I need to train," he said he competes a month after he leaves here.

It's a win-win situation, he said. "I get to come out here and support the Air Force and everything we do and when I'm boxing with the Air Force, I get to support my teammates. At no point do I get to lose. It works out really well. I get a lot of job satisfaction."

"Anytime you get to do what you trained for, it's rewarding."

As serious as the captain is about combat and the combat sport of boxing, in the flip of a switch, he's playful and lighthearted. "Wii boxing is always fun too," he said with a smile.

He's young and young at heart, which will only propel him further faster, hopefully to the Olympics, which he said is a dream.

At the rate he's going that dream is close.

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