Photo By Sgt. David Nye | FORT HOOD, Texas — Air Force joint terminal attack controllers with the 9th Air...... read more read more
Army attack and cargo helicopter crews and Air Force joint terminal attack controllers partnered with British JTACs to conduct a nighttime air assault exercise on Fort Hood Sept. 14, 2017, to practice working together on a dynamic battlefield.
The airmen, JTACs with the 9th Air Support Operations Squadron along with members of the 712th ASOS, and the British soldiers rode in an Army CH-47 Chinook cargo helicopter to the battlefield while South Carolina National Guard AH-64 Apache attack helicopters flew overhead to provide close-combat air support.
British Bombardier Paul Martlow, a JTAC from Liverpool, England, with Great Britain’s 19th Regiment of Royal Artillery, conducted many of the calls for support.
“Having the aircraft there adds an unachievable level of realism we can’t always get in Britain where aircraft are less available,” Martlow said. “In the U.K., aircraft are usually reserved for the big training operations.”
“It’s good to practice that two-way communication to hybridize and work the integration piece,” he said.
While the American and British JTACs were integrating their tactics and techniques, the South Carolina National Guard pilots took the chance to put younger pilots through their paces.
“Our priority was training junior pilots, front seaters,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Jack McLaughlin, Alpha Company, 1-151st Attack Reconnaissance Battalion aviation safety officer. “They have a heavy load in the front seat, establishing comms, tying in sensors, getting us to the point where we can identify friendlies so we don’t shoot them. And they have to establish comms with the JTACs so we can prosecute targets.”
Working with the JTACs on the ground provided its own advantage to the Apache pilots.
“Sometimes we have to fake it, but it’s much better when we actually have people on the ground that we can work with,” said McLaughlin, from Marion, South Carolina.
“We learn how to orient ourselves in the battlespace,” McLaughlin continued. “And we were working with British JTACs, so there’s no language barrier, but there is an accent barrier we have to work through.”
While the pilots could practice many of the techniques at home station, the mobilization training at Hood provides extra experience for the aviators.
“Terrain is always different wherever you go,” said McLaughlin. “Our priority is to always know where the friendlies are to make sure we don’t hit them, and Fort Hood’s terrain is actually fairly close to what we would see overseas.”
Martlow was facing unfamiliar terrain at Fort Hood, but the larger challenge for him was adapting to the way the American JTACs do business.
“In the U.K., we have lots of oversight. We’re given much more strict rules while U.S. troops have more leeway,” he said. “Not less strict in terms of proficiency, but Americans can interpret guidance to suit situations more than we can.”
Beyond the rulebook, Americans use more improvisation in Martlow’s experience.
“British do much more planning before a mission,” he said. “I like to build an entire plan in my mind, though no plan survives contact. Americans are much more fluid. They’ll sometimes just go out and try to find the enemy, then fight them from there.”
Over the course of three weeks training in the U.S., the British Service members in the exercise had also worked with Fort Hood’s 2nd Battalion, 291st Aviation Regiment, as well as the 1st Cavalry Division.
“We’ve loved working with the 9th ASOS, the 291st, and the 1st Cav., and we just want to thank them for inviting us,” Martlow said.
| Date Taken: | 09.14.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 09.18.2017 15:31 |
| Story ID: | 248726 |
| Location: | FORT HOOD, TEXAS, US |
| Hometown: | LIVERPOOL, MERSEYSIDE, GB |
| Hometown: | MARION, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 287 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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