Photo By Tech. Sgt. Noah Tancer | U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Andrew Monroe, assigned to the 378th Expeditionary...... read more read more
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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a partner nation country to the United States of America which, in partnership with the U.S. Central Command has increased its efforts to deter regional aggressors and promote stability in the Arabian peninsula.
To that effort, the U.S. Air Force Central Command and U.S. Army Central Command forces, hosted by the KSA at Prince Sultan Air Base, have each made it one of their priorities to forge and strengthen the nation’s resolute partnership through engagement, immersion and integration training with their Royal Saudi counterparts.
This commonly entails USAF and Royal Saudi Air Force integration and U.S. Army and Royal Saudi Land Force engagement. Thanks to the growing U.S. joint force relationship and inter-service operability at PSAB, Task Force Hurricane invited Airmen assigned to the 378th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron to attend a platoon immersion course in Al-Kharj, KSA, June 5th through 16th.
“Our bravo company, whose mission is security at PSAB, has been working together with the 378th ESFS for months now and have built a lot of trust and camaraderie between the men and officers,” said U.S. Army Capt. Oscar Perez, the officer in charge of the theater security cooperation with Task Force Hurricane. “We saw this as an opportunity to increase that trust and interoperability.”
Security forces are about the closest thing the USAF has to the U.S. Army’s infantry. They conduct similar training but with deviations due to the overall different roles the two branches play in theater.
“For Defenders, small infantry tactics are something we are taught in our pre-deployment training, but the Army is much more of a subject matter expert in it,” said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Select Andrew Monroe, a fireteam leader assigned to the 378th ESFS. “I feel like training with them and the RSLF really enhances and puts into practice the Air Force’s motto of multi-capable Airmen.”
The platoon immersion covered battle movements, bounding, react to fire, react to indirect fire, ambush, room clearing and more, which lead up to an overarching training operation that tested the aptitude and teamwork of the three force team. Operational success was dependent on trust; something according to Monroe, the collective service members had in spades by the end.
“The first time we met with the platoon, it was kinda like they looked at us as outsiders, but by the second day they started to accept us with open arms,” said Monroe. “Then vice versa with us and the Saudis. We seemed a little distant for a couple of days but on the third or fourth day, we broke down that barrier together and ever since then it’s been high morale constantly.”
Though they are from different places and have two different types of cultures, the service members built friendships as they trained, ate, talked, played sports and even sang and danced together.
“My favorite experience was learning how to integrate myself into a different branch, different country, and learning how to be resilient off of that,” said Monroe. “Trading patches was a really big thing here too, it showed our integration. We were wearing Saudi patches, the Army was wearing Air Force patches and vice versa. During the training it represented that we really were one team, one fight, as corny as that sounds.”
Along with the three platoon immersion courses held, Task Force Hurricane had planned and conducted two other non-infantry-based engagements with the RSLF.
The first was Hurricane Vice, a week-long staff exercise in Al-Kharj, and the second was a Tactical Combat Casualty Care medical exercise at PSAB. Perez hopes that the next rotation, Task Force Americano, will continue and grow the partner nation and U.S. joint force relationships that Task Force Hurricane has laid the foundation for.
“I know the Saudi headquarters in Riyadh are super excited about continuing to train with the American forces,” said Perez. “We appreciate the Air Force for coming out here and sharing some good times and good engagements with us. The immersion was two different elements and now we have three so it just shows we’re getting better and better. It really is all about trust, building relationships and interoperability with our Saudi partners and within the U.S. branches.”
U.S. Airmen and Soldiers will be living and working together on PSAB for the foreseeable future alongside their Saudi hosts and partner forces as one piece of many in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America’s continuing and growing friendship meant to bring peace and stability to the Southwest Asia region.
| Date Taken: | 06.13.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 08.06.2022 08:54 |
| Story ID: | 426695 |
| Location: | AL-KHARJ, SA |
| Web Views: | 176 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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