Each service has it's own role, as established by Congress. The Air Force, in general, provides "top cover" for the ground troops. This prevents the enemy from bombing the crap out of our Navy, Marine and Army brothers. In addition, we have Forward Air Controllers and Special Operations troops which perform ground duties. These troops work side-by-side with Navy, Marines, and Army personnel.
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I worked with these Special Operations troops at Hurlburt Field on 9/11. Within weeks of that attack our Base was pretty much a "ghost town". Much of the base departed to places we had never heard of before -- places like Kandahar and Tikrit. Fortunately, all of the folks in my unit came back, but many from Hurlburt Field did not, and some who did had their lives changed forever by the scars of War.
I remember one Airman from our unit at Hurlburt that came back with a Purple Heart, Air Medal and Aerial Achievement medal. I will always remember that Commanders call, because I never saw one person get three medals in one day before or since. While there, I also had the honor of attending MSgt Tim Wilkinson's retirement ceremony. If you don't know his name, he is one of the pararescues that was involved in the rescue attempt in Mogadishu, which inspired the movie "Black Hawk Down". I provided a link to the story below, if you are unfamiliar with it.
In my current unit, which provides Communications Support to the AWACS aircraft, we had one Airman receive the Purple Heart. He originally went to Iraq as a Communications troop. While there, it was discovered by one of the on-site Army Commanders that he could speak Arabic. The Commander reassigned him as his translator. As a result, he began traveling in more dangerous territory. His vehicle was destroyed by a roadside bomb. His three companions died in the blast, and his injuries were so substantial that he was medically retired at the age of 22. I had the honor of shaking his hand one day after he returned to work, just prior to his retirement.
As for me, I have done nothing heroic or dangerous. I've simply managed tens of millions of Communications projects at seven different bases. Many were just to install phone cables to new buildings, but others were to install communications upgrades to the Command Center in Cheyenne Mountain, build a new Command Post at Hurlburt Field, build an Alternate Command Post at Tinker, upgrade the Command Post and Air Traffic Control Tower at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, provide a $16.5 million upgrade to the HF Global Radio system at Lajes Field , Azores, and build an $8 Million computer network feeding over 120 buildings at Kunsan Air Base, Korea.
In my 18 year career, I haven't had the excitement my Army and Navy grandfathers had in WWII, my Air Force uncles had in the Korean War, or my Navy dad had in The Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam, but I did get a chance to live in a tent for several months in Turkey and visit the DMZ in Korea. I am scheduled to go again in 5 or 6 months to places unknown. Along the way, I learned some valuable lessons about people around the World, I have some stories to tell my daughter and hopefully grandkids. I also got a couple of medals.
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