While each of the nearly sixty specialties that com-prise the United States Air Force’s Special Tactics Squadrons has an indispensable role in the success of any special operations mission, arguably none play such a vital role across so many duty areas as Combat Control specialists (AFSC 12CX1). Combine the roles of the Air Traffic Control, Battle Management Ops, Ground Radar, and Airfield Management specialties with the ability to deploy via any available delivery method to hostile areas in all conceivable geographic locations and environmental conditions, and you’ve got a good idea of some the challenges faced by Combat Control team members.
Because of the almost breathtaking scope of skills required to serve as a Combat Controller, training lasts for nearly two years, over half of which is spent in advanced courses. The mix of extremely demanding physical challenges combined with education in high-tech equipment results in an attrition rate estimated at about eighty percent.
Following standard Basic Training, Airmen begin their journey for 12CX1 qualification with the Combat Control Selection Course held at Lackland Air Force Base, the equivalent of a 101 college course that familiarizes them with the basics of Combat Control and subjects related to human physiology. After this two-week course, they next head to the Combat Control Operator Course hosted at Keesler Air Force Base for nearly four months of immersion into the equipment and skills they’ll need when they’re inserted into forward operating areas. Radar, communications, navigation, and air traffic control are just some of the subjects covered here.
At the Army Airborne School at Fort Moore in Georgia (previously designated as Fort Benning for over 100 years), Airmen spend three weeks learning parachutist skills. In the Global War on Terror, the remote locations of many insurgent and hostile forces means that parachute drops are one of the most frequently used insertion methods across all Special Ops forces of the U.S. military.
Combat Control specialists next learn Survival, Escape, Evasion, and Resistance (SERE) tactics over a three-week period at the Air Force Basic Survival School, held at Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington, before heading to their final training destination: Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina. At this final stop before earning their 3-skill level qualification, Airmen spend over three months engaged in physical training and in courses on demolitions, communications, small-unit tactics, fire support, navigation, and other skills essential to carrying out the six tasks designated by the acronym “C3ISR”: Command, control, communications, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
In the rarefied atmosphere of the U.S. military’s special forces, the USAF’s Special Tactics squadrons take a decided back seat in the publicity department to the Navy’s SEALs and the Army’s Green Berets or Delta Force. But the more you learn about the Air Force’s Special Operations teams in general and its Combat Control teams in particular, the more you will come to understand how vitally important their roles really are in the ongoing Global War on Terror—and just how challenging earning the Combat Control badge really is.