Airmen prepare for the spectacular, daring, dangerous: the escape

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Benjamin Kim
  • 1st Special Operations Wing Public Affairs
HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. --  Editor's Note: This story is part 3 of 3 in a series about a tactical driving course taught and facilitated by Team Hurlburt members.

The culminating moment, where all the furious fervor of fast and nimble driving is tested with a final decision to fight or flight, begs the question: how about both?

The final test of mettle and tactical driving is performed at the end of the Combat Aviation Advisor Military Qualification Skills Course defensive driving module, facilitated by the 371st Special Operations Combat Training Squadron. Simulating a real-world situation, each team of students pack into a car and drive into chaos.

The car, filled with a team of three to four students, drove down the course and turned into an area enclosed by traffic cones and static cars. Immediately, smoke grenades bombarded the area while a barrage of unforgiving simulation bullets flew toward them.

While the bullets were fake, the high-velocity mini-paintballs are shaped like real rounds. They indiscriminately blanketed the teams with stinging reminders of how bad a situation can become.

"In a downrange situation, a tactical situation, if we get ambushed, if we get hit by a [roadside bomb], if we get into a situation where things have deteriorated [and] we feel unsafe and need to evade, the skills provided [during this] course [will] hopefully get them out safe," said Master Sgt. Ace Jones, 371st SOCTS course facilitator and instructor.

The armed student, brandishing their weapons with the same simulation ammunition, returned fire as the driver attempted to back out of the situation and escape the menacing cloud of smoke and bullets, utilizing skills learned in previous lessons.

"This course is defensive driving and teaches numerous things to prepare them for situations down range that they may encounter," Jones said. "This is what is going to happen in real-world, worst case situations."

Instructors used their vast knowledge and experience to teach the course.

"Myself, as well as numerous other personnel, have come back off of deployments downrange and used many different facets of our training," Jones said. "Additionally, personnel have come back from [deployments] and given us positive feedback about techniques we taught them and have expanded upon and honed those skills downrange in an environment that shows us these things actually work for them. When they come back and they give us that positive feedback we make sure that we reinforce that in the next course that goes through."

Through the sweltering heat of Florida's summer, the calloused feet and the bruises and welts from simulation rounds serve as precautionary training in order to focus on the big picture of what the Air Force is really trying to do.

"All of us go downrange, build relationships [with partner nations], maintain contact on a professional end so when we get into a country the second time, it's usually way smoother and things get done a lot faster," Jones said. "We get a lot of input from the [theatre special operations command] and from our embassy personnel. We provide an invaluable service that is not as tangible as looking at something and calling it a mission success. It's that intangible part of the relationships we've built that allow us greater access to partner nation bases or units far greater than what an embassy can establish."

While precarious situations turned dubious may never occur while performing their mission to help partner nations, if and when they do, these Airmen received the training to react -- for all intents and purposes, in a spectacular fashion.