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Tinker officer follows LEAD to serving as air surveillance officer in Southwest Asia

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  From 1997 to 2001, Capt. Amanda Young was working in the command and control career field, attaining the rank of senior airman, when her leaders decided she needed to take the LEAD.

Captain Young was accepted into the Leaders Encouraging Airmen Development Program in 2001. The LEAD Program is an ongoing Air Force effort to provide its brightest Airmen the opportunity to excel by offering them appointments to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. Captain Young completed the program -- graduating from the academy in 2005.

It was right after graduating from the academy when Captain Young joined the airborne warning and control system career field as a new second lieutenant. "I was an air weapons officer at first and then upgraded to become what I am now -- an air surveillance officer," she said.

Captain Young is deployed with the 965th Expeditionary Airborne Air Control Squadron at a non-disclosed base in Southwest Asia performing her air surveillance officer duties during combat missions aboard E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft. She is deployed from the 965th AACS at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.

"On an E-3 jet, there are three different sections," said Captain Young, whose hometown is Austin, Texas. "There's the flight crew, the weapons section and the surveillance section. I serve as the leadership of the surveillance section."

In the surveillance section, Captain Young works with three air surveillance technicians, a radar technician and a senior air surveillance technician. The section creates the "air picture" so the weapons section can direct air traffic to designated points of interest.

According the Air Force fact sheet on the E-3, the plane contains a radar subsystem that permits surveillance from the Earth's surface up into the stratosphere, over land or water, and has a range of more than 250 miles. The radar combined with an identification friend or foe, or IFF, subsystem can look down to detect, identify and track enemy and friendly low-flying aircraft by eliminating ground clutter returns that confuse other radar systems.
"Basically, when we go up and turn on the radar, we are identifying friend and foe," Captain Young said. "We are going through identifying a good air picture for the weapons guys so they can identify friend or foe and positively control weapons in the battlefield."

The captain said her section, in conjunction with the rest of the AWACS team, have an important role in supporting the warfighters on the ground.

"We coordinate directly with ground agencies," Captain Young said. "We can get timely information to those guys through our links and coverage."

Having AWACS aircraft in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility is critical, the captain said. Without its capabilities and coverage in providing integrated command and control battle management, surveillance, target detection and tracking, operations would not be as successful.

"We help extend the range in communication," Captain Young said. "In places like Afghanistan, with its geographic dynamics such as mountains, we provide that vital communications relay with the ground so they have eyes on what's going on in the war."

In joining the Air Force in 1997, Captain Young said she wanted simply to serve and to have an opportunity to improve her education. She said it has worked out quite well.

"The Air Force has been quite good to me," she said. "Through LEAD and the academy, I earned that education I wanted when I joined."

Captain Young said she will also continue to lead her section of people on the E-3 during each combat mission.

"I think we are helping the guys on the ground," she said. "It's good just to know that we're doing what we can to meet their needs and helping them get the resources they need with us getting people there and getting them there fast."

The 965th is an attached unit of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing. The 380th AEW is comprised of four groups and 12 squadrons and the wing's deployed mission includes air refueling, surveillance, and reconnaissance in support of overseas contingency operations in Southwest Asia. The wing supports operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom and the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.