I ate my dinner in a little under eight minutes, checked the time, and headed out the back door of the chow hall. Departure time for the evening's block of instruction was in ten minutes, and I had a ten minute walk. I ran.

As I arrived, the members of Detachment 13 were preparing to leave. This evenings class was C.A.S., also know as Close Air Support. We loaded onto the bus, and arrived shortly before 6 pm. The class began once everyone was seated.

C.A.S. is an instruction block designed to teach the fundamentals of communication and protocols necessary to call for air support on the battlefield. The class was formatted with the intention of teaching the methods so that as a team, the call for close air support could be organized and completed; it was not, as the instructor SFC Lester stated, designed to qualify each member to perform the tasks individually. The class was therefore divided into two parts, classroom instruction, followed by computer simulated missions where small teams conducted a close air support mission. The missions were subsequently graded to offer constructive feedback.

SFC Lester talks with a North Carolina accent. With tongue and cheek humor he offered a uniquely Army perspective on the joint services close air support protocols,"A while back all of the services agreed to get together to develop a common training and certification for close air support. When the meeting came, as luck would have it, the Army representative was in line at the Burger King at the food court and missed the meeting. The other services decided that whoever was not in attendance couldn't be certified to call for close air support." He continued, "So, I've been through the same training as the Air Force guys, but I'm not certified."

Underlining the direct approach in his block of instruction, SFC Lester continued,"We had ten slides of different bomb types. You don't need to know that. They'll drop what they've got and that's it... We want this to be simple and for you to remember it. I live by my Daddy's words; remember K.I.S.S.! [Keep It Simple Stupid]."

That said, he added that part of the soldier's responsibilities was to state, when calling in a mission, that they were not certified. SFC Lester added, "...that doesn't mean that [the pilot] won't be there to help you," it simply tells him that as a pilot,"he may need to assist you when you make the call for C.A.S."

Beyond the obvious need for calling in close air support, C.A.S. instruction also builds an awareness of how the different services communicate to each other, as well as key words that have drastically different meanings and results. SFC Lester provided this example,"In the Army we use the word 'Break' when communicating on the radio. To the Air Force pilot that means 'give the plane all the gas and get out of there 'cause somebody just shot at you.' "

Trust is a key element when implementing close air support. SFC Lester reminded the class, "We report what we see, right?" As he explained, the pilot does the same, "The pilot will tell you everything he sees. He doesn't want you to get caught in an ambush, and he hopes you will call him back."

The class finished around 9 pm. Another long day of training complete; and many more to go.

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Copyright, Scott Kesterson- 2006

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