Military questions

[Uncle Bob]

I found this link that can explain better than I.

http://www.wlu.edu/~tilitzen/ForceRecon/#general

BTW, an excellent source for this kind of info is http://www.specialoperations.com

 

[Virus]

Originally posted by Uncle Bob:

"The least well known of the current American Special Forces are the Air Force's Special Tactics Group."

I wouldn´t know about the other SpecOps, but AFAIK Air Force Special Tactics Groups (in most air forces, not just the US) have a very narrow specialisation tailored to air force needs: assaulting and holding air fields, target designation for laser guided bombs, SAR missions for downed pilots, and some field medic stuff (parachute medics, if I´m not mistaken), mainly. They do have para qualification and many of them are paracommandos. Most NATO countries have them: RAF Regiment in the UK, Sicherungstrupp der Luftwaffe (LwSich) in Germany, Commandos Parachutistes de l´Air in France, and I suppose all the other countries have them too. And yes, you´re right, they´re the least well known of specops units.

 

[aramis]

USAF has several different special tactical units
Pararescue Jumpers - Elite Medics who go in to prep criticals for extractions. Do both military and civilian rescue ops.

Combat Controllers: Not exactly certain the details, but they go set up US airbases... often by taking foreign ones, historicly. Most of the Combat Controllers I've known (more than a dozen) have sealed awards from Nam, Grenada, Panama, or Europe. Their skills are diverse; their attitudes often quite dangerous. They are rare, and hard to train, and thus prized comodities. One, a male E8 CMSgt, routinely got away with wearing female uniform on base in the early 1990's. Even got it on his Military ID that his CO authorized it. (I had reason to card him... CoSys on a BBS.)

All services also have EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) teams, some of whom are usually trained for specops missions, even tho the primary mission isn't specops.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

You are right, Aramis, about the attitudes of Combat Controllers. They are sometimes resented for that among the "regular" enlisted Forward Air Controllers. (The CC folks do FAC work for the other services' SpecOps teams.) I think some of it had to do with jealousy over the ATVs they got issued, though.