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Protect and serve: Force-protection escorts' vital role

  • Published
  • By Maj. David Kurle
  • 455 AEW public affairs
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan --  Some of the most junior Airmen deployed here are conducting a mission that, in most cases, is a world away from what they do at their home bases - they are also serving as America's front-line ambassadors to local Afghans.

Known as force-protection escorts, these Airmen keep tabs on locals hired to work construction and other projects around the base

They are trained to protect Air Force people and resources, as well as keep workers, unfamiliar with the workings of a military base, safe from harm.

"We have more contact with the locals than most other career fields here," said Staff Sgt. Gregory Rosar, the NCO in charge of the FP escorts. He is deployed here from Pope Air Force Base, N.C., where he is a plumber in a civil engineer squadron.

"Overall, it's a good job and it's important, and we know it's important," he said. "We are literally the first line of defense if something goes wrong."

Working long days, the escorts' job may appear tedious - keeping watch over small groups of Afghans laboring to build taxi-ways, aircraft parking ramps and buildings - but the escorts are continually alert for anything that could be unsafe or un-secure.

"They are given situational awareness training to know what to look for," said Tech. Sgt. Jacqueline Baumeyer, a security forces NCO and manager of the team of escorts. She is deployed here from Travis Air Force Base, Calif. "Things like suspicious activity, potential criminal activity or potential surveillance."

Despite a rigorous background check and security apparatus put in motion before hiring a local Afghan to work on the base, the Air Force doesn't take any chances - hence the requirement for the constant monitoring by the force-protection escorts.

"Another part of their training is to protect resources," Sergeant Baumeyer said.

And that includes deadly force, as all FP escorts carry M-16 rifles when watching over their charges.

"[The force-protection escorts] have been superb. There've been no incidents whatsoever," she said.

The escorts are also the only Americans some of the Afghan workers have ever met. While the FP escorts are trained not to get too chummy with the local nationals, they do form a relationship built on mutual respect.

"We are told not to get too close to the local nationals, and we don't," said Senior Airman Robert Elliott, a volunteer for FP escort duty. He is also from Pope AFB, where he works on jet engines. "There is sort of a bond that you have with them as we work with them every day. We try to work hand in hand with them to have a cooperative effect."

Airman Elliott said he volunteered for the escort job "to do his part" in fighting terrorism.

"I just don't want to sit at home all the time when there is a war going on in a different country and other people are going there," he said.

Most of the escorts are volunteers, according to Sergeant Baumeyer.

Working on a military base as active as Bagram can be dangerous for the uninitiated. So part of the escort job entails protecting the Afghan workers from potential safety hazards.

"We're out there and we pay attention to what's going on around us," Sergeant Rosar said.

FP escorts, by the nature of their duties, are generally the first ones to spot trouble around the base.

In the past four months, the team coordinated the response to a fire near a fuel area, spotted two major fuel leaks and called in the appropriate agencies, and even evacuated a team of Afghan workers after ascertaining an aircraft that was about to land short of the runway, endangering the workers on the ground.

However, their biggest contribution may not even be to the U.S. Air Force. Because of the FP escorts, the U.S. military can offer jobs to Afghans, which contributes to the overall effort to re-build the country.

"[The Afghans] are contributing to their own future and to re-building their country," Sergeant Rosar said. "I never really hear them complain.

In addition, the workers provide vital services to the upgrade and upkeep of Bagram Airfield, to support U.S. and Coalition forces fighting for Afghanistan's future.