Legendary Action
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** WAR STORIES ** THESE AIR FORCE SPECIAL TACTICS AIRMEN RECEIVED AMERICA’S HIGHEST HONORS FOR HEROISM AND GALANTRY IN ACTION. 1945 2015 LEGENDARY ACTION A collection of stories about the U.S. Air Force’s Silent Warriors engaged in ground combat. For more than seventy years, a small band of Air Commando’s has quietly operated at the eye of raging storms. Beginning with Operation VARSITY, near the end of World War II and continuing through today's Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), the mission of this obscure band of silent warriors is to provide command, control and order to American and coalition air-power storming into the chaos of a combat airhead. Today these quiet professionals continue to operate at the bloody tip of the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) spear, on godforsaken battlefields around the world. Earlier books about these battlefield airmen concentrated on a wide range of historical events, including humanitarian operations. The purpose of this book is to concentrate on the deeds of legendary combat actions performed by special tactics warriors. These stories were collected from official Public Affairs released articles; articles in the public domain. ________________________________________________________________ The Combat Control story began with the appearance of the first CCTs; teams cobbled together by the U.S. Army Air Force for the invasion of Germany, in OPERATION VARSITY. The story continues into the 21st Century and the fight in the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). i At graduation from Combat Control School, students are awarded the Scarlet Beret. ii Combat Control School Heritage Foundation (CCSHF) Combat Control School Campus, Pope Field, NC Main building, at circle drive houses classrooms, a medical facility, cadre offices, locker rooms, Benini Heritage Museum and logistics support office. Building at left-rear has SCUBA training pool, and work out area. Building right-rear is a live- fire small-arms range. Legendary Action Stories about America’s Silent Warriors; their actions, their sacrifices and their honors. 1945 – 2015 Produced and published by the CCSHF Staff All rights reserved - © CCSHF 2015 CCSHF, 2301 Robeson Plaza, Suite 102, Fayetteville, North Carolina 28307 ccshf.org iii iv In memory of CMSgt Alcide S. Benini b. October 15, 1921 – d. April 16, 2015 The USAF’s first Combat Controller and CCS Museum Namesake CCSHF Mission The Combat Control School Heritage Foundation (CCSHF) is a North Carolina incorporated, 501 (c) 3, tax-exempt, organization. The Foundation’s only mission is to support the Combat Control School training efforts. In this role, the Foundation works in concert with the school staff to acquire, exhibit and maintain mission artifacts exhibited in the CMSgt Alcide S. Benini Heritage Center (BHC). We know it is the duty of each new generation of Combat Controllers to pave the way for tomorrow's Special Tactics warriors. Our goal is to facilitate that task. We will never forget that Combat Controllers of yesterday paved the way for tomorrow’s Special Tactics Warriors. The Foundation’s key goals are to supplement the student’s formal education by putting a “face” on CCT history; bolstering active duty morale and supporting United States Air Force recruiting and retention goals for special tactics operators. The Benini Heritage Center displays historical lineage; exhibits unique events in history; artifacts; and equipment used since the inception of USAF Combat Control Teams. It provides students a link with CCT warriors of the past, promoting pride in the past and instilling faith in the future. We thank you for your continued support of the Combat Control School Heritage Foundation. One-hundred percent of your contributions go directly to heritage museum projects. You are strongly urged to visit the Benini Heritage Center and Museum at www.ccshf.org to learn more about its mission and goals. Gene Adcock, CMSgt, USAF (CCT) Retired President, Combat Control School Heritage Foundation James C. Lyons, CMSgt, USAF (CCT) Retired Director, Combat Control School Heritage Foundation “Dedicated to the Preservation of our Warrior Heritage.” v vi FOREWORD The Air Force’s Combat Controllers are America’s quiet warriors who work in the shadows with little notice or fanfare. The fast-moving nature of today’s global fight makes documenting the valor of these Airmen difficult but Gene Adcock and the Combat Control School’s Heritage Foundation do an exceptional job of telling the story of their valor and sacrifice in the pages that follow. Few know the names of John Chapman, Rob Gutierrez or Justin Temple among many others but Legendary Action documents what these and many other Combat Controllers have achieved while face to face with the enemy. As the stories that follow testify, the impact of these men is immensely consequential: turning the tide of battle, killing key enemies of our Nation and ensuring that their fellow Soldiers, Sailors and Marines return home alive. Hoo-yah Team, Brigadier General Robert G. “RA” Armfield, USAF vii viii AIRMEN IN THE SHADOWS An introduction by W. Thomas Smith, Jr. The Air Force is a major player in rooting out terrorists. September 17, 2004 - National Review Online (NRO) - When most Americans think of the U.S. Air Force, the first images that come to mind are of supersonic fighters like the F-15 Eagle or the new F-22 Raptor. Perhaps they think of B-2 stealth bombers, the big lumbering B-52 Stratofortresses, or C-130 and C-141 cargo planes. Some may think of nuclear-tipped inter- continental ballistic missiles, reconnaissance satellites, or super-secret subterranean command posts like the one beneath Colorado's Cheyenne Mountain. After all, aircraft, crews, and ICBMs have been the service's raison d'être since breaking free from the U.S. Army and becoming a separate branch of the U.S. armed forces on September 18, 1947. Like Navy SEALs, Army Special Forces, and Recon Marines, Sean R. Harvell - Two Silver Stars the missions of these airmen are often classified; their efforts rarely make the papers. They don't duplicate the work of other "shooters": Instead they bring a number of unique features to the special-operations mix, including men, aircraft, and battle-field wizardry. "The Air Force has always prided itself on things like high-tech information systems and space technologies, and that has carried over into its approach to special operations," Maj. General William W. Hoover (a retired two-star who currently serves as an advisor to NASA) tells NRO. "Our ability to precision-locate things, to insert people and weapons systems, and to communicate has simply been devastating to the enemy." Beyond the science is the art. And that's where the operators come in. Air Force special-tactics units are comprised of three elements (not including the pilots, aircrews, and support personnel). These include combat controllers, pararescuemen, and combat weather teams. Combat controllers are specially trained paratroopers who jump in advance of large-scale airborne assaults—like the one conducted by the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade over northern Iraq in March 2003—in order to set up, secure, and provide on-ground navigational assistance on landing or drop zones for inbound pilots and paratroopers. As the title suggests, the combat controller's specialty is establishing and maintaining air-traffic control in a combat zone. But as highly skilled ix air commandos who are almost always outnumbered by enemy forces on the ground, they often find themselves performing tasks outside the box. Isolated, behind enemy lines or far out in front of advancing friendly armies, a combat controller might be tasked with coordinating an air strike on an enemy air-defense position. Equipped with special range-finding binoculars, a palm-top computer, a GPS (global positioning system) receiver, and a rifle, the airmen can clandestinely spot the target, direct an attacking pilot to it, and then leap on a motorcycle and race toward another target where he will repeat the process. On another mission, combat controllers might be tasked with making a high altitude/low opening (HALO) parachute jump onto a field slated to be assaulted by larger airborne forces. There, the airmen will silently land, overwhelm and kill and any defenders who discover them, and prepare the way for inbound planes and paratroopers. In the hours before the 1983 invasion of Grenada, a handful of combat controllers and SEALs conducted an open-water parachute drop off Point Salinas on the southern tip of the island. The SEALs were responsible for reconnoitering the airfield, determining the condition of the runway, then locating and determining the strength of nearby enemy forces. The airmen were tasked with positioning radar beacons on the airfield so that parachuting Army Rangers and other airborne forces would be able to find the drop zone. Unfortunately, four SEALs drowned in heavy seas, and the others were ordered to withdraw before completing the mission. Nevertheless, the invasion was a "go," and just over 24 hours later, a team of combat controllers made the first parachute jump over the island's heavily defended Point Salinas Airport. Weighed down with nearly 100 pounds of equipment, the airmen jumped from an altitude of only 500 feet. A malfunctioning main parachute would have killed them. On the ground and under constant fire from Cuban forces, the airmen then directed transport aircraft ferrying two parachuting battalions of the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment over the airport. At Point Salinas, the combat controllers and the Rangers encountered the toughest overall resistance of the operation. Air Force combat controllers trace their lineage to the U.S. Army's pathfinders of World War II. During some of the earliest American airborne operations, paratroopers were inadvertently dropped several miles short of their drop zones by pilots then utilizing crude methods of navigation.