Posted on 10/19/2009 6:34:19 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — The Air Force is facing a critical shortage of joint terminal attack controllers, a position vital to reducing the number of civilians killed in airstrikes in Afghanistan — one of Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s keys to turning around the war there.
And while the service is taking steps to address the shortage, any increases won’t be seen for years.
JTACs, as they are known, are airmen trained to call in airstrikes on enemy targets. Once an Army unit calls for an airstrike, it is the JTAC’s job to choose the right bomb to be dropped and to help guide pilots to the target.
Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, told a gathering in Washington recently that there was a “big shortage” of the controllers, who traditionally have been assigned to platoon-size security teams and Special Forces units. Speaking at a National Press Club symposium, Petraeus said he recently asked the Army and Air Force about training more JTACs.
In fiscal 2005, there were 622 controllers in the service. By fiscal 2013, there will be 1,056 controllers to meet Army needs, a 70 percent increase.
While not acknowledging that the shortage has affected combat operations, some Air Force officials admit that the current operations tempo has placed great stress on the career field.
“In my opinion, the Operational Tempo for JTACs ... has increased dramatically since 9/11,” Col. James P. Thomas, commander of the 504th Expeditionary Air Support Operations Group at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, wrote in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes. “[With] that and the increased deployments, changing technologies and lack of stability at home have all increased the shortages.”
Because of this shortage, these specialized air controllers spend much of their time downrange in battalion tactical operations centers instead of patrolling with ground units, said Air Force Tech. Sgt. Joseph Hren, who trains JTACS with the 1st Air Support Operations Squadron out of Wiesbaden, Germany.
“Ideally, [JTACs] would go out at the platoon level,” said Hren, who called in airstrikes in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2004.
Instead, JTACs seldom directly observe the targets they are helping pilots bomb, he said.
The military relies on Army joint fires observers to monitor an aircraft’s targets from the ground and communicate with a JTAC who, in turn, talks to pilots. Joint fires observers can deploy with only two weeks of hands-on training, while it takes nearly three years for the Air Force to fully train a JTAC.
Indiana Air National Guard Tech. Sgt. Scott McPhee called the Army’s joint fires observers a “good interim gap-filler.”
But “nothing beats having a JTAC at the company or platoon level where he has eyes on the target and eyes on the aircraft,” said McPhee, who is also director of operations at the security company Coastal Defense. During his 15-year Air Force career as a JTAC, McPhee has deployed to Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. he said.
“It’s the safest and best way to conduct close air support, [but] there’s just not enough JTACs to go around,” he said.
To increase the number of air controllers, the Air Force will begin training 230 new JTACs annually, starting next year, according to Maj. Angie Blair, an Air Force spokeswoman.
But because of the amount of time needed for training, a significant increase in the number of JTACs will not be seen for 1½ to two years after that, Blair said.
In the meantime, controllers who are already serving can expect to spend plenty of time downrange.
Earlier this year, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz ordered that key airmen such as JTACs match Army deployment schedules. Until recently, JTACs typically deployed for half the time the Army units they supported were downrange.
In the end, that means less time off for JTACs.
With the recent increase in both U.S. troops and insurgent activity in Afghanistan the Air Force is re-examining manning to determine if even more JTACs are needed, according to 1st Lt. Derek White, an Air Force spokesman.
He described JTACs as a “low supply/high demand asset” and said “there will be stress on the career field” as long as the U.S. military continues to need close air support during combat operations.
But Blair said the Air Force can maintain the current operational tempo as long as required.
“We are meeting the ... directed dwell ratio for JTACs, and unless told otherwise we will continue to do so,” she said. “We have programmed for more JTACs, and as they become available we will be able to move towards a more comfortable dwell ratio to allow our JTACs more time at home.”
Spending all that time with the Army makes the job very unpopular, Hren said.
“Not everybody wants this job ... 99 percent of the guys [who become JTACs] will never be stationed on an Air Force base,” he said. “A lot of people realize, ‘I joined the Air Force and I’m going to be living and working with the Army my entire career?’ That’s not appealing to them.”
At the end of their first enlistment, roughly 40 percent of airmen in the Tactical Air Control Party career field will leave the service, according to figures provided by Blair.
But, she said, retention rates for airmen learning to become JTACS are the highest they have been in the past four years. She declined to give specific retention rate figures.
“We have programs in place that make continuing service attractive for many JTACs,” she said.
Those “programs” include highly profitable re-enlistment bonuses. According to data released this spring by the Air Force Personnel Center, Tactical Air Control Party is one of the only four career fields in the service authorized to give the biggest cash awards for staying in. Depending on rank, years of service and the amount of time an airman is willing to re-enlist, the bonus could be as high as $90,000.
/johnny
Warning to new recruits: Obama will respect your retirement with dollars worth milli-pennies.
My son swore in last week. He’ll be an AC-130 gunner. Just doin’ his part is what he said to me.
I volunteered but after I told them I would advise “just nuke the place from orbit - its the only way to be sure” they were no longer interested... Wimps!
3 years??????? I’m throwing the flag on this one....
A 1C4X1 (AFSC) for a Tac Air Control Party (TACP or EFAC) gets 73 days of training to the ‘3’ level (apprentice) at the AGOS near Hulbert Filed Fl. Then CDC + OJT to reach the 5 level.
More at
http://www.romad.com/wordpress/
BTW, I understand they are hiring right now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.