820th SFG learns new skills in Army course

Published May 5, 2006
By Airman Eric Schloeffel
347th Rescue Wing Public Affairs

MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- The 820th Security Forces Group continued its expansion from typical Air Force missions recently, sending two sergeants to the Joint Fire Observer Course at Fort Sill, Okla.

Master Sgt. Edward James, 820th SFG chief of training, and Tech. Sgt. Roger Aho, 820th SFG standardization and evaluation NCO-in-charge, attended the Army-run course April 16-28. Students become certified joint fire observers upon successful completion of the course.

Joint fire observers are qualified to call for close air support by contacting a joint terminal air controller, who becomes the liaison between ground forces and pilots. The need for JFO-qualified Airmen stems from the shortage of JTACS embedded in combat areas, said Sergeant James.

“Since there are a limited number of JTACs, units often (have difficulty) because there is nobody able to call for close air support,” he said. “Having a JFO-certified individual in a deployed location allows them to make the JTAC the middle man. It smoothes out the process.”

Upon arrival at Fort Sill, Sergeant James and Sergeant Aho intended only on being classroom observers for the course. Their objective was to learn about the course to prepare 820th SFG Airmen who may attend in the future.

“We were sent to this course initially as observers because the security forces mission is changing in the theater,” he said. “As the Army realigns and changes their focus on missions, we’re picking up that slack on convoys and patrolling more areas ‘outside the wire.’ We were there to see what type of people we should send, so we can set them up for success.”

But the observer plans changed when they were asked to be students after eight soldiers didn’t show up for the first day of class. This entailed participating in academic portions of the course and air support simulations.

Becoming familiar with the duties of a JFO takes many hours using a realistic combat simulator, said Sergeant James. While using the simulator, students call in target coordinates to a simulated JTAC or aircraft and plan attack runs.

In addition to close air support, the course served as refresher training for techniques to call Army artillery support during outside the wire 820th SFG missions, said Sergeant Aho.

“Being that our mission has been driven outside the wire, it was (important) to learn how to communicate with Army artillery units. This gives us the ability to go get the ‘bad guy’ but also is security for us in case we get pinned down by the enemy.”

By the end of the course, the sergeants were proficient in JFO skills and were anxious to bring their skills back to the 820th SFG, said Sergeant James.

“This is something new to security forces,” he said. “I’m a lot more knowledgeable about close air support since I’ve taken the course. We can now present this information to Airmen not (for certification) but to show how close air support works.”