Special Air Force

Air Force Special Operations:

The men of Air Force Special Operations Command or the quiet professionals. The men of Air Force Special Operations Command assets on the battlefield, have fought alongside the world’s most elite units in every major battle in our nation’s history since the Vietnam War. The operators of AFSOC include combat controllers (CCT), pararescuemen (PJ), and combat weathermen.

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Air Force Special Operations

Air Force Pararescue (PJ) :

Pararescue jumpers (PJs) are also highly-trained members of the AFSOC community, only they have a slightly different skillset. Being the more recognizable members of Air Force Special Operations, PJs are known as the life-saving heroes who rescue downed pilots and other military personnel in austere and hostile territories. Pararescuemen put their own safety aside while doing everything in their power and training to ensure that no injured man or woman is left behind. They live by the motto, “These things we do, that others may live.”

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Air Force Special Operations, PJs

Air Force Combat Controllers (CCT) :

Combat controllers are a force multiplier on the battlefield; they seek out and destroy evil with extreme prejudice, airfield seizures, delivering precision air strikes, and resupply airdrops alongside Army Green Berets, Marine Force Recon, Navy SEALs, Rangers, and many other host nation special operations forces.

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Air Force Special Operations, Combat controllers

Special Operations Weathermen :

Special Operations Weathermen (SOWT) conduct operations directly with other special operations forces, providing weather data to operations in real time to maximize the potential for a successful mission. They also provide terrain and riverine data that could make or break the success of a special operations combat operation in forward-deployed locations. Special operations weathermen go through many of the same training events as the other Air Force special operations airmen with the addition of their primary weather training to make them experts on meteorological phenomenon and weather prediction.

Special Operations Weather Team

Air Force Special Tactics Training :

The Air Force Special Operations tactics teams consist of airmen from three different career fields : Air Force Pararescue, Air Force Combat Controller and Special Operations Weathermen.

Career fields requires specialized intensive training.

Special Operations Weathermen Candidates Training

Air Force Pararescue Training :

Their training, as well as their unique mission, earns them the right to wear the maroon beret.

Pararescue Training Pararescuemen endure some of the toughest training offered in the US military. They complete the same technical training as EMT-Paramedics, plus the following physical and specialized training :

US Army Airborne School. Trainees learn the basic parachuting skills required to infiltrate an objective area by static line airdrop.

Pararescue Jumper H A L O

Lackland Air Force Base. Indoctrination Course. This Indoctrination Course recruits, selects and trains future PJs through extensive physical conditioning. Training accomplished at this course includes physiological training, obstacle course, rucksack marches, dive tables, dive physics, metric manipulations, weapons qualifications, PJ history, medical terminology, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and leadership reaction course.

Special Ops : US Air Force Pararescue Jumpers

US Army Special Forces Combat Divers School. Trainees become combat divers, learning to use scuba to covertly infiltrate denied areas. The course provides training to depths of 130 feet, stressing development of maximum underwater mobility under various operating conditions.

US Navy Underwater Egress Training, Pensacola Naval Air Station, Fla. This course teaches how to safely escape from an aircraft that has ditched in the water and the instruction includes principles, procedures and techniques necessary to get out of a sinking aircraft.

US Air Force Basic Survival School. This course teaches basic survival techniques for remote areas. Instruction includes principles, procedures, equipment and techniques, which enables individuals to survive, regardless of climatic conditions or unfriendly environments.

Pararescue Recovery Specialist Course. The training includes field tactics, combat tactics, mountaineering, advanced parachuting and helicopter insertion/extraction. Qualifies airmen as pararescue recovery specialists for assignment to any pararescue unit worldwide.

Paramedic Course. This course teaches how to manage trauma patients prior to evacuation and provide emergency medical treatment.

Air Force Combat Controller Training :

Combat controllers are the foremost experts on combat air-traffic control and joint tactical air control in the Air Force, and are some of the military’s most highly trained assets.

Combat Control Training : Air Force Combat Controller Training are among the most highly trained personnel in the US military. Their 35 week training and unique mission earn them the right to wear the scarlet beret. They must maintain a Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control qualification throughout their careers in addition to other special operations skills.

US Army Airborne School, Fort Benning. This course teaches basic parachuting skills required to infiltrate an objective area by static line airdrop.

Combat Control Operator Course, keesler air force base,This course teaches aircraft recognition and performance, airport traffic control, air traffic rules, air navigation aids, weather, flight assistance service, communication procedures, conventional approach control and radar procedures. This is the heart of a combat controller's job, this is the same course that all other air traffic controllers attend.

Air Force Combat Controller Training

Combat Control School. This course provides final CCT qualifications. Training includes physical training, small unit tactics, assault zones, demolitions, communications, land navigation, fire support and field operations including parachuting. At the completion of this course, each graduate is awarded the 3 Skill Level, scarlet beret and CCT flash.

US Air Force CCT, Afghanistan

Special Tactics Advanced Skills Training, advanced Skills Training (AST) is a 12 months program for newly assigned STS operators. AST produces mission-ready operators for the Air Force and United States Special Operations Command.

The course tests the trainee's personal limits through demanding mental and physical training. The AST schedule is broken down into four phases : ground, water, employment, and full mission profile.

Combat controllers also attend the following schools during AST :

Air Force Combat Controller Training

Special Operations Weathermen Training :

Their training and unique mission skills earn them the right to wear the gray beret.

Special Ops Weatherman Special Operations Weathermen conduct the same technical training as all Air Force weathermen. Special operations weathermen are among the most highly trained personnel in the U.S. military. They maintain the same weather weapon system qualifications as all Air Force weathermen in addition to advanced special tactics skills.

Membersof the Special Operations Weather Team and the 18th Weather Squadron raise aweather sensor near Salang Pass in Afghanistan.

US Army Airborne School. Trainees learn basic parachuting skills required to infiltrate an objective area by static line airdrop.

US Air Force Water Survival School, Pensacola Naval Air Station. This course teaches basic water survival techniques, initial Skills Training. This unit-level training provides newly assigned weathermen those skills necessary to deploy and operate in permissive and semi-permissive environments. Also Training includes basic communication, navigation and employment techniques, weapons training and small unit tactics.

US Air Force Basic Survival School. This course teaches basic instruction of techniques in survival. This includes survival techniques for remote areas, evasion and escape.

SpecialOperations Weathermen. New mission to better fight great powers

Advanced Training :

Air Force Special Operations Command Advanced Skills Training (six months) Advanced Skills Training employs a "warrior-training-warrior" philosophy, teaching the skills necessary for successful service in the special tactics community. Training includes advanced communication, employment techniques, navigation techniques, small unit tactics and weapons training.

Special Operations Weather Selection Course, Lackland, Air Force Base. This course focuses on sports physiology, nutrition, basic exercises, special operations weather history and fundamentals.

Special Operations Weather Initial Skills Course. This course prepares Air Force special operations weather apprentices. Training includes basic, intermediate, and advanced meteorology, meteorological reports and computer operations.

BattleTrained Meteorologists Of Special Operations Weather Train Hard

Other topics include: weather chart analysis, satellite meteorology, weather radar, tropical meteorology, weather products, weather prognosis techniques, synoptic level analytical meteorology, forecasting weather elements to include severe weather, synoptic lab, forecasting lab, and a unit on the weather career field and weather equipment.

Operations Weather Apprentice Course. This course provides final special operations weather qualifications. Training includes physical training, tactical weather observations, austere weather operations, land navigation, small unit tactics, demolitions, communications, and field operations including parachuting.

At the completion of this course, each graduate is awarded their 3 skill level "journeymen", gray beret and SOWT crest.