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  • Recon Marines, Special Tactics groom joint ground leaders

    The police officers rush into the compound, weapons drawn, shouting orders at the men inside the building to surrender. Shots ring out, spent rounds discharge and the police retreat, leaving one officer behind with a gunshot wound. The insurgents drag him through the courtyard for all to see and

  • Finding the way: Special Tactics chief awarded Silver Star

    Their mission was to act as a blockade for a NATO ground operation tasked with clearing an insurgent safe haven. But what began as an ancillary tasking, ended with one Airman decimating the majority of enemy forces and saving his team from devastation. Chief Master Sgt. Michael West, a Special

  • ST surveys airfields to gain operational advantage

    Special Tactics Airmen from Air Force Special Operations Command conducted multiple airfield surveys with their Afghan Air Force counterparts in Faryab province this week. Airfield surveys are executed prior to the arrival of special operations and conventional aircraft to traditional airfields and

  • SECAF awards Air Force Cross, 10 medals to Air Commandos

    The team was trapped, outnumbered and bombarded by grenades and machine gun fire from elevated positions. Bullets ricocheted around them.Ordnance from circling, friendly aircraft exploded meters from their position, shaking the ground, as smoke from an exploded cache smothered the village.Their

  • “Lead from the front”: Special Tactics general officer retires

    27 years of service. 13 assignments. Countless deployments with joint special operations units and even a stint at Harvard University.On Sept. 8, Brig. Gen. Robert Armfield, vice director of plans and programs for U.S. Central Command, retired from the Air Force surrounded by hundreds of teammates,

  • Special Tactics saves lives in Hurricane Harvey aftermath

    To assist in rescue efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, 38 Special Tactics Airmen were deployed to Southeast Texas to provide critical disaster relief.Special Tactics Airmen with the 123rd and 125th Air National Guard Special Tactics Squadrons are exercising their personnel rescue and

  • Special Tactics simulates chaos, combat in Estonian village

    Combat controllers sprint through the small, rustic village donned in plate carriers and radios, ducking behind buildings for cover, calling in coordinates and relaying information to the ground force commander. The citizens were transformed into enemy combatants, the village homes into targets for

  • Anytime, Anywhere: Special Tactics enables global access in Estonia

    A quiet, rural highway in northern Estonia transformed into a bustling military airfield as combat controllers guided A-10C Thunderbolt IIs onto the 50-foot-wide freeway during a flying training deployment, Aug. 10.A small force of eight 321st Special Tactics Squadron combat controllers surveyed the

  • Ohio highway dedicated to SOF hero

    Two F-16 Fighting Falcons assigned to Ohio Air National Guard’s 180th Fighter Wing provided a final salute to their brother in arms during a ceremony dedicating an Ohio highway to a special operations hero, Aug. 14.Six miles of County Highway 121 was dedicated in Master Sgt. William L. McDaniel II’s