21 Jun 2019

Special Tactics Training Squadron dedicates building to selfless hero

Those who have walked the grounds of Hurlburt Field know that the entire base is engulfed with Air Force history. The street names, buildings, airpark, and training complexes all tell a story and keep memories alive of perhaps a father, husband, son, daughter, or in many cases – a hero. Today, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col William “Bill” Schroeder’s name was bound forever to Special Tactics and Hurlburt Field history when the Special Tactics Training Squadron annex building, which formerly housed the 10th Combat Weather Squadron, was dedicated in his namesake.

6 Jun 2019

Air Commandos with the 352nd Special Operations Wing conduct Staff Ride in preparation for D-Day

“Given our location in the U.K., we were allowed to visit the airfields that were used for bombing campaigns and troop carrier actions in World War II, and D-Day June 5th and 6th in particular,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Keith Snook, commander of the 7th Special Operations Squadron, based at RAF Mildenhall, U.K.  Staff rides can be traced back to the turn of the century when the U.S. Army took charge of preserving and marking Civil War battlefields. Today, they are used to represent a unique and persuasive method of conveying the lesson of the past to the present-day leadership for the current application. 

29 May 2019

NASCAR honors fallen Special Tactics Airman

Family members and teammates of U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Dylan Elchin attend the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 Miles of Remembrance race on May 26, 2019, Concord, North Carolina. Elchin, a Special Tactics combat controller, was killed in action when his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, Nov. 27, 2018, while deployed in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. Special Tactics operators are U.S. Special Operations Command’s tactical air-to-ground integration force and the Air Force’s special operations ground force leading global access, precision strike, personnel recovery, and battlefield surgery operations.

29 May 2019

SOST member awarded Bronze Star Medal for life-saving actions

U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. J Hall, a Special Operations Surgical Team surgical technician with the 720th Operations Support Squadron, receives the Bronze Star Medal from U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Kevin Webb, the director of operations for SOST, during a presentation ceremony at the Gordon Center for Research in Medical Education, Miami, Florida, May 23, 2019. Hall was presented a BSM for his life-saving battlefield surgery actions while deployed in 2016. Special Operations Surgical Teams are highly-mobile, tailorable teams of surgical and emergency specialists trained to provide life-saving surgical care and trauma resuscitation on or near the battlefield.

13 May 2019

Air Force transitions enlisted specialty, grows Special Tactics capabilities

Enlisted Airmen have been analyzing weather since the very beginning of American military flight in 1917. Decades of hard-earned experience led to Special Operations Weather Team Airmen being designated with their own Air Force Specialty Code in 2008. By combining the core skills of Special Operation Forces with their meteorology skills, SOWTs have been a critical asset to the War on Terror. Alongside Special Tactics teammates from forward deployed locations, SOWTs would gather, assess, and interpret environmental data in order to forecast weather impacts to operations. In a location like Afghanistan, this was vital to successful air-ground operations.

8 May 2019

Special Tactics Airmen use training dive to clean Destin Marina

A Special Tactics team in advanced skills training at the Special Tactics Training Squadron collected trash out of the Destin Marina during a training dive, Destin, Florida, May 8, 2019. The trash was taken to Emerald Coast Scuba and reported to Project Aware, a nonprofit organization who works with scuba divers across the globe to protect underwater environments. The ST Airmen are graduates of the Air Force Combat Dive Course which provides them with open and closed circuit diving procedures, navigational swim training, day and night tactical open water surface swims, and combat diving infiltration and exfiltration techniques.

19 Apr 2019

24th SOW commander relinquishes command, performs final military free fall jump

Various leadership with Air Force Special Operations Command and the 24th Special Operations Wing perform a military free fall jump out of an MC-130H Combat Talon II at Hurlburt Field, Florida, April 19, 2019. U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Claude K. Tudor, Jr., former commander of the 24th SOW, relinquished command on the Talon II. Tudor has commanded the 24th SOW since March 2018, leading U.S. Special Operations Command's tactical air-to-ground integration force and the Air Force's special operations ground force in global access, precision strike, personnel recovery, and battlefield surgery operations.

9 Apr 2019

Special Tactics TACP awarded Silver Star Medal for Afghan ambush

A crowd of over 250 family, friends and U.S. service members gathered as U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Vincent Becklund, deputy commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, presented the Silver Star Medal to U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Cam Kelsch, an ST Tactical Air Control Party operator assigned to the 17th Special Tactics Squadron, during a ceremony at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum here, April 9.

12 Mar 2019

26th STS partners with FARP, F-35A for next generation operations

For the first time, Airmen from the 388th Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, and Air Commandos from the 26th Special Tactics Squadron and the 27th Special Operation Logistics Readiness Squadron at Cannon AFB, N.M., trained and carried out a FARP operation from an MC-130J Commando II to an F-35A Lightning II.

4 Mar 2019

Special Tactics Airmen culminate 830-mile ruck march to honor fallen brethren

Aches, blisters, exhaustion, pain…830 miles, five states, 11 days…are a minute price to pay to honor the fallen. The push to continue on for these Air Commandos come from their communities’ legacy of never forgetting a fallen comrade, from the pride instilled within themselves, and from reaching down and grabbing one of 20 batons that contained an inscribed name of a fallen teammate. Air Force Special Operations Command Special Tactics Airmen, along with a mission support force of 19 Air Commandos assigned to the 24th Special Operations Wing, began the 5th iteration of the Special Tactics Memorial March in the pre-lit dawn, Feb. 22 at Medina Annex at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, to pay tribute to U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Dylan J. Elchin.