Combat skills training is a must for today's Airmen

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HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii: Since Airmen are taking on more non-traditional rolls and missions in deployed locations, the need for individual combat skills is imperative.

Airmen selected to deploy for Air Expeditionary Force Cycle 5 and 6 from the 15th Airlift Wing recently took the three-day Expeditionary Combat Skills Training course intended to instill these necessary skills.

“The ECST course is designed to increase the combat effectiveness and survivability of troops deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan,” said 15th AW Plans NCOIC Master Sgt. Arthur Simon. “It teaches critical wartime skills prior to Airmen's deployment to high-threat areas that Air Force members are usually not exposed to or trained on,” he said.

An Air Force message in 2005 called for additional combat training for deploying Airmen. Unit security forces squadrons were identified as subject matter experts for most of the skill sets and responsibility for training.

The problem was, since most security forces units were critically undermanned because of deployments themselves, Pacific Air Forces used war on terrorism funding to contract the design and implementation of mobile contract training teams to provide relief for security forces and conduct training.

The teams, under ANSER Corp., now travel throughout the Pacific Region training each AEF prior to deployment. The instructors are professional trainers with backgrounds in combat career fields such as tactical air control party members, Navy SEALs, Army Special Forces and Air Force security forces.

“We have a lot of experience. We have a lot of special operations combat skills training, but we have geared this training properly,” said Rod Propst an instructor for ANSER Corp. “What we are trying to do is give these young men and women those minimum basic skills that they might need if they are caught in a bad situation outside the wire.” 

The ECST course is not intended to replace long-term combat skills training, but it introduces PACAF Airman to the critical wartime skill sets they are usually not exposed to as members of the Air Force.

The first two days of classroom material covers tactical training on convoys, the use of force, the rules of engagement, how to care for a weapon, how to assemble gear properly and battle field trauma — an advanced course in self-aid buddy care. After the classroom portion, students spend a day “in the field.” The morning classes cover convoy training and individual movement techniques. The afternoon is taken up with unexploded ordnance sweeps followed by challenge and search procedures.

Because the course's success and increased student demand, the course is now three full days of instruction.

“We have been doing this just over a year. We have visited every installation several times no matter where the demand is,” said Mr. Propst. “We have been providing two-day training over the last year and the student demand switched us to a three-day course.”

Instructors have been deployed just under 70 percent of the time since November 2005, training PACAF Airmen scheduled for AEF cycles and have not missed a rotation.