Photo By Senior Master Sgt. Jarad Denton | Staff Sgt. Stephen Bremer, 720th Missile Security Forces Squadron response force...... read more read more
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CAMP GUERNSEY, Wyo. - Floating dust particles glistened in the air as they danced around the sunlight which streamed through a cracked window inside a building at the North Range of Camp Guernsey, Wyo., Oct. 20.
Periodically, a man would peer out the window, scanning his narrow field of vision with an AT-4 rocket launcher; he waited patiently for a convoy carrying a nuclear resource to arrive.
“I’m blind from my angle,” Staff Sgt. Stephen Bremer, 790th Missile Security Forces Squadron response force leader, said as he set the launcher down. “Let me know when you have eyes on the convoy.”
“I see them,” a voice crackled over the radio attached to Bremer’s vest. “They are roughly 300-meters away.”
Bremer returned to his vantage point, ready to attack the convoy as soon as it crossed his sights. Within minutes, the large truck carrying the nuclear resource rolled into view. Bremer shoved the launcher out his window and immediately fired a rocket, disabling the truck. Security Forces airmen from F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., who were escorting the truck as part of the Road Warrior nuclear-convoy training exercise, instantly established a perimeter to protect the resource.
As the opposing force laid down suppressive fire, the Airmen began employing the skills and tactics they were taught in the previous five days of training. The Op-4 teams launched rocket, threw grenades and attached C-4 explosives to armored vehicles, amid a hailstorm of bullets.
“We are here to do our best,” said Staff Sgt. T.J. Lombardi, 341st Security Forces Group NCO-in charge of equipment and OP-4 team member at Camp Guernsey. “We are playing the part of an attacking terrorist force. If we played by the rules we wouldn’t be giving these airmen our best effort.”
Lombardi expertly moved from various firing positions within the building he had sequestered himself in, while at the same time maintaining constant communication with the rest of the Op-4 team. As he fired his M-16, blank rounds would fly from the ejection port – accurately simulating the sights, smells and sounds of live-fire ammunition. Additionally, whenever Lombardi would “kill” a Security Forces member, a high-pitched alarm would sound from the Airman’s vest – indicating they had just become a casualty.
“Our goal is for absolute realism,” Lombardi said. “We are thinking outside the box and changing out tactics on the fly to encourage them to do the same.”
Once Security Forces established a definitive firing position on Lombardi’s location he was forced to find cover elsewhere. As he ran he passed the “bodies” of other Op-4 team members who had been taken out of the exercise. One was sitting next to the truck which carried the nuclear resource – a few feet from the actual device. When he and his partner had tried to storm the truck, they were met with fire from the Security Forces, or Blue-4, Airmen.
“We attempted to steal the resource from the truck,” said Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Hutchison, 620th Ground Combat Training Squadron NCO in-charge of combat arms. “We got into it by breaching the rear of the truck, but were ‘killed’ when Security Forces entered.”
Hutchison said the value of Road Warrior is immeasurable for Security Forces airmen who are on nuclear resource convoys.
“This kind of training is really good for both sides,” Hutchison said. “They don’t get this experience from anywhere else. This actually could happen; they need to always be ready.”
With Road Warrior constantly testing both Blue-4 and Op-4 to improve their skills, airmen are able to leave this training with the confidence necessary to secure, defend and recover a nuclear resource.
“We take this as seriously as possible," Lombardi began. "Because if someone decides to oppose Global Strike Command's convoy operations, they will have the best Security Forces defenders in the world going up against them.”
Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series highlighting Road Warrior X, the nuclear-convoy training exercise held annually at Camp Guernsey, Wyo.
| Date Taken: | 10.20.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 10.24.2012 13:22 |
| Story ID: | 96678 |
| Location: | CAMP GUERNSEY, WYOMING, US |
| Web Views: | 115 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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