SA 29DEC09

[link] USAF Mosquitoes served during the Korean War from 1950-1951. They were assigned to the US Army from Corps down to Regimental level (back then, the Army fought in Regimental Combat Teams, similar to our Brigade Combat Teams today) along with haveing T-6 Texan aircraft to form the Air Forward Air Controller mission. Radio Operator Maintainer And Drivers were enlisted Air Force radio maintainers who were assigned to one of the Mosquito squadrons where in some cases they drove jeeps full of radios with a rated Air Force pilot who was the Forward Air Controller. These teams would be the ones who would roll out to the Army combat regiments to coordinate and control Close Air Support with the US Army.

No $#%*! There I was at Eielson Air Force Base going through Airman Leadership School (USAF Non-Commissioned Officers School) in Feb 2005 not even five days back from supporting the 172nd Stryker Brigade in Mosul and Rawah Iraq (timing is another story completely... Lets just say I was sent kicking and screaming the entire way, my wife was about to have a baby and I needed down time after being in a combat zone... GOD BLESS my Chaplain! Its amazing what regulations suddenly get remembered when a Chaplain gets involved...). Our instructor literally introduced himself with those words... Needless to say, I almost called the male bovine feces flag right then and there, my blood was boiling. Why? Well, since most folks don't know me very well, I'm a former US Air Force Tactical Air Control Party member who had the Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC, MOS for you Army folks) of 1C4X1 Tactical Air Command and Control Specialist. The introduction above describes our ancestor ROMADs whom served in Korea, and are the FIRST ROMADs and the FIRST Airmen to work with the US Army on the ground in COMBAT during the Korean War. Sadly, the Air Force did away with the Mosquitos after Korea... And brought back similar jobs in Vietnam. Our Vietnam ancestors were the ones who forged ahead with making the job specialty in the USAF to ensure it was there when the next war started and we didn't have to re-invent the Close Air Support (CAS) wheel over and over again... By 1977 (30APR) we were an official AFSC (back then it was 275X0 if I recall... check out the Romad Locator under TACP 411 [link]).

I get just a tad angry when folks don't know their history and speak like they are the supreme expert on all things dealing with the subject they did 'first'... What can I say though, until the GWOT TACP's were the 'Bastard Sons of the Air Force; Red Headed Stepchildren of the Army'. We had low priority funding, no real officers to speak of other than the Air Liaison Officers who were assigned to TACP's like the old FAC's, and nobody knew what we did. I was stationed on Ft. Riley and I always got the "We have Air Force here?!" from the Army. Our enlisted men have been the FAC's (known as Enlisted Terminal Attack Controllers or Joint Terminal Attack Controllers now) since the 1980's, but the only time we received notice from the Army or the Air Force was Panama and Desert Storm; only in times of crisis... Typical! Post 9/11/01 and suddenly we get loads of equipment that we'd asked for years prior, some attention from the Air Force, and finally being an ALO wasn't a dead end career (in Korea our Standard and Evaluations Officer at the 604th ASOS was non other than Maj. Nicole "FiFi" Malachowski, and I've still got some of those records to prove it!). Yet despite the higher profile, folks still don't know much about the Airmen who have been serving next to the Army since Korea, the Airmen who just don't really get the Army's Air Force Jokes until we finally are close enough 'Big Blue' to see how true some of them are! We are a small, and yes elite, group. After all, on active duty there are only 1,000 Airmen doing the job to support the entire Army from Battalion level on up through Corps!

For more information check out Steve Call's book "Danger Close" from Texas A&M Press (Amazon: [link]). Excellent book, though doctrine heavy! It covers all the sexy aspects of controlling CAS from the Battalion and Special Forces TACP aspects, as well as the mind numbing coordination that takes place at the Brigade through Corps level in equal portions!