TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Whether it is unprepared, semi-prepared, or paved (prepared), a landing zone survey must be conducted to evaluate the risk of safely using any landing surface for military air-land operations.
To conduct an LZ survey, 621st Contingency Response Wing LZ surveyors had to attend a course offered by outside agencies to include the U.S. Marine Corps’ Marine Survey and Assault Zone Assessment Course provided by the Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One (MAWTS-1) in Yuma, Arizona.
Now, the 621st CRW can organically train its forces from within, streamlining training and readiness across the wing.
“The LZ Survey Course was a wing initiative established by our Airmen who constantly come up with innovative ways to positively impact mission readiness,” Col. Jason Herring, 621st CRW commander said. “We have always had the capability, but it took forward-thinking to develop a plan to have Air Force Special Operations Command combat controllers certify our mission ready airmen and empower them to certify others at our home duty stations in the future.”
Essentially, the 621st CRW was able to cut out the middleman, which will save manhours and taxpayer dollars. However, it is much more than just that as it also develops airmen, generates readiness and increases a unit’s capability, which are three of the four main components of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force’s Great Power Competition.
“This course is led by our airfield operations and civil engineering community, and it validates CR’s dedication to the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center mission,” Herring said. “It equips our squadrons with homegrown deployment capabilities that enable our joint partners to explode into theater around the globe by surveying landing zones for fixed wing aircraft ahead of the joint maneuver. During course production, the 821st Contingency Response Group deployed a survey team to U.S. Central Command for three real world surveys demonstrating a demand for this capability.”
Four 821st CRG airmen attended the weeklong course that covered 14 different military publications on the range of landing zone operations.
“This equips us with the ability to train for a deployment capability without having to solicit the support to external agencies,” Capt. Ben Pupkiewicz, 921st Contingency Response Squadron operations flight commander and the LZ Survey Course’s lead instructor said. “This will also speed up the process of training new airmen to the CR. Where previously new airfield mangers would wait 1-1.5 years to get an open course slot, we are now able to execute a course as soon as there is demand.”
After validation by AFSOC, the 621st CRW will be able to expand this qualification and train its mission ready airmen who are individuals with expertise and versatile skillsets required to win in various operational scenarios.
“Demand for this qualification has always been present,” Pupkiewicz said. “Now we actually have the validation to make our in-house training official.”
For years, in-house training within the 621st CRW was off-the-books and unofficial, still needing MAWTS-1 course to become officially certified. However, after the first LZ Survey Course successfully concluded at Travis Air Force Base, California in January, the next step is to train LZ survey instructors at 621st CRW headquarters based at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey.
“We’re making adjustments to the schedule and refining some academic material, but by the end of January, we’ll be validated by AFSOC,” Pupkiewicz said. “After we are validated, our west coast contingency response team will TDY to the east coast to instruct their instructors, and from there, the whole wing will have the ability to train and execute.”
The primary airmen eligible to take this course are airfield operations officers, civil engineers, airfield managers and civil engineering craftsmen. The course can also be tailored to qualify landing zone safety officers within the air traffic control community as well.
“I really enjoyed being a part of this inaugural course,” Staff Sgt. Samson Rice, 921st CRS landing zone safety officer said. “This definitely beats being in the office, and I think this is a great way to get invaluable and cost-effective training done.”
The first LZ Survey Course team traveled about 50 minutes to a farm in Rio Vista, California, and performed a LZ survey successfully in front of AFSOC combat controllers and 621st CRW LZ surveyors. Total time needed to complete the course was about six hours, which includes travel time. Total cost was only gasoline needed for two government-owned vehicles to get there and back.