Air Force guys

[hawkerjet]

Hi guys, as a non military person I am curious about some of the names you use in the military. What type of training does air force special forces go through and what exactly is their job description. thanx in advance for your help and thanx again for your work.

 

[anjinoo7]

Depends on what type of job you have. The typical person tends to think of the Air Force Special Forces as Pararescue Jumpers or PJ's as well as Combat Controllers. PJ's are specially trained medics that specialize in combat search and rescue of downed pilots behind enemy lines. Incidentally, one of them holds the Guinness Book of World Records for highest altitude rescue. The other one is a Combat Controller who are traffic controllers that have various functions but the name states their primary mission. Both are typically assigned to Army SF units as well as some other "teams". They both start in the same training pipeline but are separated shortly after initial training to learn their respective specialties.

One of the other fields are that of Combat Weather man. Usually assigned to Army special operations teams. Cool job, with lots of jumping (Airborne).

The other Special Forces are pilots, navigators, and A/C crewmembers. One cool job is that of a crew chief for a helicopter, while flying you are otherwise known as a "door gunner".

Another lesser-known job is that of Security Forces member. Typically, they are not recognized as Special Forces however later in a career options increase dramatically to do those types of tasks. I have known guys attached to special teams and work some really cool operations.

One link to look at is http://www.sfahq.com/US_Air_Force_Commandos/index.html

Hope that helps.

 

[hawkerjet]

Thanks a lot, that certainly does help my curiosity. Do you need to be an officer to join special forces ? I also recall hearing the term wizzer, what's that?

 

[hawkerjet]

What type of job does a wizzer do?

Hey guys, I'd like to bend your ear one more time. I've heard the name wizzer bandied around by some special forces air force guys. what is a wizzer and what does he/she do? thanks in advance

 

[rjl2001]

I'll try to add a little bit, even though anjinoo7 pretty much covered it.
The Air Force has AFSOC, or Air Force Special Operations Command, which is one of the joint members of USSOCOM, or United States Special Operations Command. AFSOC is broken down into the flying side, which includes aircraft and aviators, and then the other side is mainly members of Special Tactics Teams (STT).

On the aviation side the AFSOC assets include AC130 Gunships, MH53J Pavelow's, HH60 Pavehawks, and eventually the MV-22 Osprey. They pretty much fly missions that directly support Special Operations troops. These aircraft have flight crews that are trained for Special Operations assignements. They go through some intense survival school and POW training in order to be able to do this. The officers over here are pretty much your pilots, and navigators. Then your enlisted are going to be crew chiefs, flight enginners, and aerial gunners mostly.

Then the other side, the STT's are your Airmen that perform the usual Special Operations missions on the ground. These teams are made up entirely of Air Force personell and usually will be working in a larger joint team or task force alongside Navy SEALS, Army Rangers, Delta, and other Special Forces troops. The STT's are made up of three careerfields:
Pararescueman (PJ)
Combat Controllman (CCT)
Combat Weatherman (CW)
PJ's are your special operations qualified medics. Their whole mission in wartime is to rescue downed pilots and airmen from behind enemy lines. They are kind of a jack of all trades, that can operate in any environment and be employed be any different means. They are recognized as the worlds best at Combat Search and Rescue. In peacetime they practice by performing various other search and rescue missions for the public as well. Then your CCT's are the guys that coordinate all the airborne efforts that are part of Special Operations missions. They could be setting up and controlling an austere airfield somewhere, or they could be calling in air strikes for their unit. Finally, the CW guys have a very specific mission of providing detailed and timely weather observations from the front lines. They are most often embedded with any Army unit, and deploy and work directly within that unit. A good example of their mission could be providing meteorological information on a certain area prior to coalition forces actually making the invasion. They can let you know what visibility is like, what the tides are doing, and more so attacks can be planned accordingly. These used to all be enlisted jobs, up untill a couple years ago. Now you have the Officer careerfields that do the same job but are tasked with more command and control, logistical, and the other stuff the higher ups do. Combat Rescue Officer are those who deal mainly with the PJ field, and Special Tactics Officers are kind of the CTT officers if you will.

Plus other Air Force personell perform some tactical or covert stuff. Including TACP, or tactical air control party personell, whose job is to call in close air support for the other service's unit they are embedded with. They handle forward air control for all Amry and Marine units, even if they would rather do it themselves, these Air Force guys are better and really know their stuff when it comes time to do their job. Security Forces personell usually serve as police for the Air Force. Additionally, they provide security for forward bases and airfields. They can stop threats before they get to the base and perform in a counter-terrorism role also. Finally, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, or OSI does some special forces like work. They have anti-terrorism teams that deploy to the front lines and are there to stop terrorists and other threats before they can cause damage to any other Air Force personell or units. Also EOD, Eplosive Ordnance Disposal members are specialists with most weapons and munitions. They can clear live ordnance found, try to disable explosive devices, plus they can work for secret service sometimes.

A great website that is a good reference for AFSOC information is, www.specialtactics.com . Keep in mind I'm sure I left stuff out or screwed up some information, butt I think that gives a good overview of their general roles and responsibilites. I am also not in the Air Force, but have a strong interest.
Also, I don't know what a wizzer is. Maybe they were talking about a WSO, Weapons Systems Officer, which sounds kind of like wizzo when you say it. Just a wild guess though.

 

[Nocturnal1]

Thanks a lot, that certainly does help my curiosity. Do you need to be an officer to join special forces ? I also recall hearing the term wizzer, what's that?

I think you mean WSO (Weapon System Officer) previously known as a GIB (Guy in back). Their job is to operate the radar and offensive and defensive systems on the aircraft. Certain aircraft have separate positions for each...depends on the systems and workload.

As for your special ops. questions...as previously mentioned the Air Force has AFSOC (Air Force Special Operations Command) which is based at Hurlburt Field, FL This command was established in 1986 with the creation of USSOCOM (United States Special Operations Command). The Army has USASOC and the Navy has NAVSPECWARCOM. Each has their own unique job to perform on the team. Specifically, the Air Force has spec ops. AC-130 gunships, MC-130E/H, MC-130P and MH-53 Pavelow helicopters.

You do not need to be an officer to be in AFSOC...there are many enlisted positions in AFSOC, flying and support.

Here is the link to Air Force Special Ops Command
https://www.afsoc.af.mil/public/index2.shtml