An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

380AEW Article

380th ESFS Defenders hone their combat edge

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jeremy Larlee
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
Southwest Asia --  Airmen from the 380th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron honed their combat edge during a training course Sept. 27 through 30 at this undisclosed base in Southwest Asia.

Skills that were addressed included active shooter training, riot control training, weapon drills, room clearing and vehicle assault training.

Tech. Sgt. Alex Bell, 380th ESFS training cadre, was one of the key planners for the training. He said that planning for the training has been ongoing for about a month and that the training is vital to security forces personnel.

"These are skills that our Airmen are going to need at some point in time," said Sergeant Bell. "But they are also perishable skills that will degrade over time if they are not refreshed."

The first course was a success and plans are in place to make the training happen on a regular basis, said Staff Sgt. Edgar Jimenez, 380th ESFS training cadre.

"This is going to be a continuous training class," he said. "We practice like it is a real event. It is better to make mistakes in training than in a real situation and possibly ending up getting someone hurt."

Sergeant Bell said that the first class was mostly made up of volunteer students and that they received some extremely strenuous training.

"We really wore the students out after running them through the course," he said. "We have gotten back a lot of great feedback from them. It was very physical, it's meant to stress you out because that is what would happen in a real situation."

The sergeant said that creating the course was a collaborative effort between the cadre and security forces leadership.

"We only had the skills to work with that people here possessed," he said. "We had to figure out who could teach what and then we put the program together."

Sergeant Bell said that he has already heard from other security forces personnel who want to be students in future classes. He said that the training is similar to the in-service training that civilian law enforcers receive. He said proper training is the life blood of a strong security forces unit.

"Sometimes training is hard to fit into our busy schedule," he said. "But after we are done, we want to do more because we love doing it. It really brings everybody together."

Sergeant Bell, who is a reservist with the 82nd Security Forces Squadron at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, said that he is older than a lot of security forces personnel, but he continues to be impressed by their hard work and dedication.

"If people could just shadow these professionals for a couple of days and see the great job they do, they would be as proud of them as I am."