Photo By Staff Sgt. Kirby Turbak | U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Rachel VanZale, 1st Combat Camera Squadron combat camera...... read more read more
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The 1st Combat Camera Squadron hosted exercise Scorpion Lens 2024, the Department of Defense’s largest public affairs exercise, March 4 - 15, at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina.
This year’s Scorpion Lens, dubbed SL24, was an upgraded version of the 1 CTCS’s annual exercise designed to validate combat camera professionals’ ability to operate under high stress, while providing directed imagery in austere and contested environments.
“Scorpion Lens has undergone significant advancements in its planning and execution phases,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Devin Nothstine, 1 CTCS training superintendent and SL24 lead planner. “The squadron training program has updated to align with the evolution of the public affairs career field, and Scorpion Lens was the perfect time to evaluate and assess our processes.”
Members of the 1 CTCS welcomed six combat camera allies from the Netherlands Ministry of Defense for this year’s exercise. This benchmarked SL24 as the first international iteration and built on the importance of interoperability in an era of Great Power Competition.
The international partners, along with over 50 combat camera professionals hand selected from across the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force were sorted into eight diverse teams with a unified mission for SL24: to forge bonds, master rapid imagery transmission and work together to shape the information environment.
“Scorpion Lens was designed to help participants see the value of imagery and information,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. William Powell, 1 CTCS commander. “The key for operating in an environment where information plays a critical role is creating an advantage for commanders.”
SL24 was broken up into a two-phase training exercise to ensure the teams truly grasped the concept of information as an instrument of national power.
“Phase one was in the classroom with a focus on providing participants the training tasks and hands on application they needed before they went out into the field for phase two,” said Nothstine.
The first week of SL24 consisted of intensive lessons from an array of subject matter experts. From Defense Information School instructors, to security forces specialists, to operations intelligence specialists, participants were taught the necessary skillsets needed to successfully achieve the training objectives during scenarios they were scheduled to face in phase two.
All eight teams traveled from Joint Base Charleston to McCrady Training Center when it was time for phase two. There, they executed the tactical stage of SL24 completing a series of physically and mentally demanding assessments reemphasizing the instruction from phase one.
“We prioritized the realism of the tactical phase of this year’s exercise to more accurately reflect the situations our combat camera teams could find themselves in while attached to specialized units,” said Nothstine.
Approximately 26 challenges spanned across three days and assessed the teams’ combat capabilities while they conducted their primary duty as mission-ready Airmen providing imagery to senior leaders. Scenarios they faced required tactical combat casualty care, close-quarters battle, mounted operations, combat search and rescue, sensitive site exploitation, and counter improvised explosive device proficiency.
Another enhancement for Scorpion Lens was the debut of journalism and media operations to directly align with the Air Force Public Affairs Agency’s AFPAA Next initiative. Although the 1 CTCS is comprised of public affairs specialists with journalism and media expertise, news writing, press releases and media escort challenges were not a part of the exercise’s curriculum until SL24.
“Information is so important that it can’t be limited to just imagery,” said Powell. “It’s beyond that. It’s much more.”
With AFPAA Next, the 1 CTCS aims to expand the unit’s core competencies to provide an enhanced communication arsenal beyond imagery and meet emerging Information Warfare requirements, said Powell during a 1 CTCS all-call.
“It was important for our team to use AFPAA Next in the planning process for Scorpion Lens because it’s the way forward for the career field,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Eric Jefferies, 1 CTCS unit training manager and SL24 planner. “Participants were educated on a wide variety of courses geared towards the expansion of capabilities.”
SL24 concluded with a 14-hour culmination event, which tested each team’s ability to combat scenario-based misinformation. Teams were evaluated on a total of 464 training tasks where they were graded on communication, leadership, task completion, safety and technical execution.
“It was more than just an evaluation, it was about what they took away from the exercise and how they played their roles as information warfare professionals,” said Powell. “I hope the participants walked away with a better understanding of the ever-changing information environment, the equipment they use, and the products they can produce in addition to documentation.”
As the vision, mission and priorities of the 1 CTCS evolve for the future, exercise Scorpion Lens is on track to continue to expand and develop, ensuring combat camera specialists are equipped to sustain and support all information-related mission requirements.
| Date Taken: | 03.15.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 04.15.2024 09:48 |
| Story ID: | 468535 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 93 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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