BEALE AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – The 9th Security Forces Squadron (SFS) recently held tryouts for Airmen across multiple career fields to join Beale’s Tactical Response Team (TRT), also known as the Beale Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team.
“The goal is a program that gives Beale a team of highly trained individuals with diverse backgrounds, disciplines, and access that are capable of responding to complex situations on short notice,” said Capt. James Stocks, 9th SFS operations officer. “We had to find driven and coachable individuals we could train to a high level of tactical proficiency."
The 9th SFS’s decision to train Airmen from other career fields to fit their needs ties into the United States Air Force’s push for mission ready and deployment ready Airmen who can fit the Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment (ACE) needs. Per Air Force Doctrine 1-21 Agile Combat Employment, Mission Read Airmen (MRA) is defined as “Airmen trained in expeditionary skills and capable of accomplishing tasks outside of their core Air Force specialty,” while generating combat power. Beale’s newest TRT Airmen fit exactly into the definition of Mission Ready Airmen.
“As far as MCA and deployment readiness, these members are developing knowledge of higher-level tactics that directly translates to the survivability and lethality of these members and their teams in contested environments,” said Stocks. “We are all in the military, we should all be capable of picking up that weapon system to handle the threat.”
The Beale TRT tryouts physical fitness qualification incorporated push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and a timed one-mile run as part of a physical fitness test. Ninety Airmen from a wide variety of career fields and ranks tried out, with 23 moving on to a shooting qualification.
The shooting qualification portion included stress inoculation to simulate the high stress, high speed conditions of responding to a real-world situation. Airmen were then tested on their handgun and rifle proficiency with a “9-hole drill”, Baer Solutions Drill, and a moving and shooting portion with target discrimination. The test allowed Combat Arms Training & Maintenance (CATM) instructors to evaluate firearms proficiency and ability to follow directions while making decisions under stress.
After the shooting qualification, nine Airmen were invited to undergo a 48-hour assessment in which two Airmen were selected in the final result. These Airmen will continue on to Security Forces Augmentee Training, and 1-2 weeks of in-depth Close Quarters Battle (CQB) training before they can become fully qualified members of Beale’s TRT.
The 9th SFS plans on holding tryouts again in May to extend the opportunity to additional MRA.
The Airmen who ultimately join the team will be able to join Security Forces exercise’s, such as Exercise DRAGON TRIDENT that recently occurred with the Navy SEALs, weapons proficiency courses, Sacramento County SWAT School, and open doors to Army schools, such as Air Assault.
Beale’s TRT was originally created in 2017 with the selection process adapting to meet the base’s growing mission and needs. The idea to expand the team to multiple career fields came from such adaptations.
“We started by including medics on our team to improve our overall response capabilities,” said Staff Sgt. Dashawn Davis, 9th SFS TRT NCO in charge. “From this we believed that career fields have something to offer and could holistically improve the team and our capabilities”.
This experiment turned a concept into reality which showcases the ingenuity of the U.S. Air Force to consistently do more with less and practice flexibility to overcome any challenge.