News

5th CCG Combat Readiness School hones flexibility, resilience

  • Published
  • By Jenny Gordon
  • Robins Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  You hope you never have to use it, but in the event you do need combat education learned at the 5th Combat Communications Group's Combat Readiness School - you're glad you had the training in the first place.

"If our students learn one thing, it's to be flexible and resilient in how to respond to events," said Tech. Sgt. Ryan Petersen, 5th CCG Combat Readiness School NCOIC. "We don't ever want to use deadly force, or be lost where you have to use a compass and navigate, etc., but in order to prepare students to be as effective as they possibly can, we train them with scenarios to ingrain in their minds how to react."

Training at the school, now certified by Air Education and Training Command, includes two weeks of intensive classroom instruction, culminating in a four-day field training exercise at Gator Air Base. 

Its premise is to prepare airmen, now offered to those from across the continental U.S. no matter rank or job title, should they be deployed into a combat environment. According to Petersen, the only other instructional agency capable of such training is located at the Air Force Expeditionary Center, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey.

The two-week class, held 10 times per year, averages about 30 students. There they learn fundamentals that include weapons handling, such as cleaning, wearing and firing a rifle or pistol; improvised explosive device identification; convoy operations; and land navigation techniques. 

The Fieldcraft Hostile course's objectives are standardized, with continued instruction on topics such as escalation of force and active shooter preparation. Recent training added includes night operations and using night vision goggles while driving. 

There's a day dedicated for travel and training at Moody Air Force Base near Valdosta, Georgia, where groups undergo Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle rollover training.

During this scenario, you're strapped inside a simulator and spun so the body can experience what it feels like to get hit and rolled over while inside an MRAP. 

Training continues at Robins where on about five acres at the southeast end of the base, space is devoted for training in as realistic an austere environment as possible. While there are several small hard structures on site, sleeping tents and shelters serve as home away from home. 

"Students will live, eat, sleep, use the bathroom, everything out there for four days," added Petersen. "They'll set up their own forward operating base, are given a pre-deployment tasking and set up the site with security." 

Defensive fighting positions are set, wire is integrated into the scene and a command center is established with radio communications. There's even a 'makeshift village' on site, with volunteers from Robins who act as local opposition forces. 

"We teach how to react appropriately, keeping in mind reducing civilian casualties, but also providing any humanitarian relief, aid and security to locals who are friendly to us and are really victims of the situation," said Petersen. 

James Robbins, the 5th CCG's CRS program director, emphasized the curriculum's focus on exposing students to various combat situations, just as they would encounter downrange. 

"We're sending these folks into combat environments in theater operations, so we want to expose them to certain stress levels, heart rates," Robbins said. "We want to make them nervous, make them a little fearful so they can have an opportunity here to react with that level of stress in a controlled environment. So when they do go into combat and face an enemy, they already know what that feels like and can perform as they should." 

A former student of the school, Petersen emphasized the high job satisfaction felt throughout the cadre of eight instructors who help to make sure students are fully equipped for anything they may face. 

"It's not every day you get to shoot weapons or take part in a convoy operation. The training you bestow upon these students may be the difference in them coming back home to their family and friends," he said.