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820th Security Forces Group

Security forces team jumps into history

by Staff Sgt. Jason Tudor
Air Force News Service
DUKE FIELD, Fla. -- Six members of a Texas-based security forces unit jumped into history Sept. 15, stepping out of a C-141 and parachuting on to the airfield here with the 82nd Airborne Division.

The half dozen members of the 820th Security Forces Group, based at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, made the jump in tandem as part of Expeditionary Force Experiment '98. To the collective memories of the group's senior staff, this is the first time any security forces unit has jumped with the elite Army airborne unit.

EFX '98 is the first in a series of experiments designed to upgrade the Air Force's war fighting capabilities by exploring new operational concepts and integrating advanced technologies to fight and win armed conflict in the 21st century, according to officials.

The 820th SFG is a highly specialized security forces unit. Its members have training from across the services spectrum. Many airmen from the unit are trained as Army Rangers and Pathfinders; some have been to the Marine Corps ropemaster course; and still others have attended specific Air Force Special Operations tactics courses. The blend of talent, training and readiness made this a perfect opportunity for the unit to experiment during EFX.

The security group's job was to take over from the 82nd once it had taken and secured the airfield from enemies. The team was broken into two elements: the liaison team, which jumped with the airborne soldiers; and the command element, a group 17 people which flew in after the field was seized and secured. Officials wanted to see if the airmen could team with an Army unit and help plan the air field seizure and if the security forces liaison team could have the "reach-back" capability with the headquarters element to give real-time feedback of the tactical situation on the ground.

Not everything went perfectly, said the 820th's operations officer, but there were plenty accomplishments to go around including the historical jump.

"There's a lot of anxiety and a lot of preparation that goes into jumping out of a perfectly good airplane," said Derry, who is a Ranger and has served with a British paratrooping unit. "That is just another way to enter the battlefield. Your real job starts when the balls of your feet make contact with the ground and you execute a dynamic parachute landing. That's when you carry on with your security forces mission or your force protection mission."

Much of the grunt work that went into planning the mission was done by Capt. Brent French, logistics officer, Ranger, and one of the six on the jumping liaison team. The planning process, he said, began about six months ago when the senior decision-makers at the Pentagon realized the 82nd Airborne Divsion would be performing the capture of Duke Field. Furthermore, they said the 820th would be involved and "if the 820th was going to be involved, we want to test jumpers," French added.

So, without many people jump qualified, the 820th SFG and French did the drudge work to get people to jump school.

This was French's 13th jump. He described the experience as being like none of the first 12. "To jump with 1,200 other people at midnight with no illumination onto a runway after making a two-and-a-half hour flight is almost as difficult as it gets."

Tech. Sgt. Larry Rettele, 820th Security Forces Squadron, stands in front of a Humvee as visitors from Air University ask him questions Sept. 18. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Jason Tudor)

And did the airborne soldiers want the airmen to jump with them?

"Yes," French said, "after we did some previous qualification jumps. I had people who just a month ago graduated airborne school. The 82nd says, 'if you want to jump with us, a couple of things have to happen. We want you to do a daytime jump with no (extra) equipment and a nighttime jump onto a soft drop zone and then we'll allow you to jump
EFX.'"

Airborne does a brigade sized movement about once per quarter, French said. "It's a significant emotional event for them to do a jump like this."

He said the only way he knew the ground was coming up was when his equipment, about 150 pounds worth which is lowered down on a 22 foot line, hits the ground below him. With the jump taking place at 800 feet, French said "you've got 24-30 seconds of time in the air to get your life sorted before you hit the ground."

Tech. Sgt. Larry Rettele was one of the enlisted people who made the jump. He was the fifth jumper out of the last plane (of 12) on the first pass.

"I was glad to get out the door, I was so cramped up on that plane," he said. "I jumped out, got a good 'chute and the next thing was to land on the runway. A lot of people were worried about it. I did pretty well."

To ensure the safe landing, Rettele and others attended the three-week basic airborne school at Fort Benning, Ga. He credits much of his success that night to that course and his security forces training. "It's a break from the normal routine of what we do in security forces. It's scary, but once you're out the door and into the breeze, you're pretty good."

Rettele also believed experiments like EFX '98 benefitted not just the Air Force, but armed services members across the board.

"We need to interact more with out sister services," he said. "I think it broke down a few barriers. This is going to happen more in real life. So, I think it helps us out."

Derry said the mixing of armed services in an operation like this is a step in the right direction.

"With the forces getting smaller we have to be a lot more diverse," he said. Derry said the Army looks at Air Force team's badges (the Ranger and jump badges) and that's where the Air Force gets its credibility.

"They know that we've gone through the same training they've had and they treat us as an equal," he said. "We gone to as many, if not more, of the same schools they have."

But he said there was an intimidation factor, both in making that first jump and making it with "the premier airborne force in the world."

Webmaster's Note:  The 820th is augmented with members of the OSI Counter-Terrorism Support Team (CST), and HUMINT  and SIGINT Air Intelligence Agency (AIA) personnel. The unit is under the Security Forces Center at Lackland along with the Force Protection Battle Lab. The change from SP to SF happened at about the same time the unit was activated and the title has promulgated itself throughout the Air Force. Currently, all former Security Police Squadrons (SPS) are now Security Forces Squadrons.