Sharpshooters scope out threats at premier airlift wing

Photo By Master Sgt. Courtney Richardson | Airman 1st Class Todd Maghamez, right, and Senior Airman Todd Robinson, 386th...... read more read more

Photo By Master Sgt. Courtney Richardson | Airman 1st Class Todd Maghamez, right, and Senior Airman Todd Robinson, 386th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron Close Precision Engagement team, scan the perimeter of the base during a training exercise on Dec. 8 at an air base in Southwest Asia.  see less | View Image Page

12.15.2008

Story by Staff Sgt. Thomas Doscher 

386th Air Expeditionary Wing

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By Staff Sgt. Vincent Borden
386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

Airman 1st Class Todd Maghamez gets to see a scope of the Air Force many other Airmen will never get a chance to. As a sharpshooter with the 386th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron Close Precision Engagement team, or CPET, he spends hours observing avenues of approach to the base from concealed positions.

As a security forces Airman deployed from Anderson Air Force Base, Guam, and part of a team of sharpshooters assigned to the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing, he rather enjoys the view.

CPET responsibilities mainly include performing over watch duties for the 386th ESFS installation gates and Viper teams, the ambassadorial unit of Security Forces who interact daily with the local nations in the area that surround the Persian Gulf air base. They ensure the Vipers are protected as they approach new camps to ensure nothing goes awry during their meetings.

Daphne, Ala., native Senior Airman Brad Gaudet, a 386th ESFS CPET and Fly Away Security Team member, said it's not uncommon to see sharpshooters covering entry control points, for instance.

"When people think about sharpshooters, they think offense," said Gaudet. "The Air Force uses it more in integrated base defense, that's what the CPE program is all about. But that can be a hard thing for some people to understand."

Part of the reason for that is the fact the close precision engagement and sharpshooter program is relatively new to the Air Force.

"This program's only been around since 2002, so it's only a few years old," said Gaudet. "The Air Force was looking around for ways to minimize collateral damage and enhance a squad, particularly when we started getting more [joint source solution] missions."

The program expanded to include measures of perimeter and base defense. Now in performing defense measures, sharpshooters usually set up in teams of two and each team consists of a spotter and shooter. The spotter, usually the more experienced of the two, has to take things such as wind speed and altitude into account in order to determine the adjustments necessary for the shooter to aim precisely on target.

Teams often have to wait extraordinarily long periods of time watching their targeted areas through the scope of their weapons. That presents two problems: physical fatigue from constantly viewing their targets through a scope, as well as staying camouflaged in their surroundings without getting discovered.

Culbertson said that even though the sharpshooters could be out on missions for multiple days, the physical fatigue was something that could be gotten used to. The camouflage aspect, however, is a bit more difficult.

'Especially here, it's hard to blend in with the environment because it's so flat," Culberson said. "There are just not a lot of places to hide well."

The shooters have adjusted to the problems like chameleons. They make their own camouflaged clothing, or Ghillie suits, out of old desert flight suits, clothing patches and sandbags more as a measure of necessity than anything else.

Constructing the suits is almost like a rite of passage, something that the CPE team members put an enormous amount of energy into for functionality and durability. For instance, Robinson stitched his together with netting and broken down sandbags and glue over a couple of days. His suit, considered the best among the CPE team members, makes Robinson disappear in the desert terrain. The better the suit, the less chance a sharpshooter has of being compromised while he's out on the job.

The swelling numbers of camps, which are taking away hiding spots, are also making things more challenging. But it also presents new opportunities to build what resembles a community watch network around the 386th AEW.

"We went from 220 camps this summer to 550 camps in just a few months," said Tech. Sgt. Michael Hayes, non-commissioned officer in charge of CPET.

In addition to covering the Vipers, the sharpshooters also track the location of each of the camps and the number. The information is kept on a large map in their workcenter, and in a database where subsequent deployers can note the trends of camping season's beginnings and endings, as well as if the numbers they are experiencing are unprecedented.

Hayes said it's a big job that pays enormous dividends.

"We do a lot of things out here," said Hayes. "We're building relationships with people. If you build a bond between them, they're going to and they do, call in things. And that's more eyes and ears out here for our base."