History
The USAF Special Operations School is the product of a 50-year evolutionary process. The process began in March 1961 when President John F. Kennedy, responding to Chairman Nikita S. Khruschev's clarion call for "wars of national liberation," cited the need for countering "subversion and guerilla warfare" that were the heart of Communist insurgency. As a result, the Air Force increased the emphasis given to special air warfare training.
The United States Air Force Special Air Warfare School (USAFSAWS) was originally a Directorate of the 4410th Combat Crew Training Wing at Hurlburt Field. In 1968, the school was re-designated USAFSOS. In June 1987, USAFSOS, as an organizational element of the 23rd Air Force, was assigned to the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), headquartered at MacDill AFB, Florida. In May 1990, the school became a direct reporting unit of the newly established Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). In October 2008, with the stand-up of the Air Force Special Operations Training Center, USAFSOS was placed under that unit, which was later reorganized on 11 February 2013 and renamed the Air Force Special Operations Air Warfare Center. Most recently, USAFSOS is aligned to the 492nd Special Operations Wing. During its formative years, the school's main thrust was the preparation of Air Force personnel for duty in Southeast Asia. Subsequently, USAFSOS has grown from teaching a single course the first year, to conducting 165 iterations of 20 different formal courses and 33 customized, Mobile Education Events (MEEs) in AY18. USAFSOS currently provides (SOF) indoctrination, as well as political, military, and cultural studies supporting SOF operations in the various combatant theaters. The school also provides language training, and specialized instructions on irregular warfare principles; building partner nation aviation capacity; aviation foreign internal defense; dynamics of international terrorism; and command, control and integration of Air Force Special Operation Forces (AFSOF) assets and AFSOF leadership development.
Curriculum
The USAFSOS curriculum is directed by the AFSOC Commander to meet USSOCOM validated educational requirements. USAFSOS follows the USAF Instructional Systems Development model for course design and delivery.
Currently, courses are organized in one of four content areas: Irregular Warfare, Regional and Cultural Expertise, Special Operations and Language Training.
1. Irregular Warfare courses educate SOF personnel on a range of adversarial threats and operational and technological countermeasures available for consideration. Irregular Warfare courses include Aviation Foreign Internal Defense, International Terrorism, Force Protection and Interagency.
2. Regional and Cultural Expertise courses are geared to SOF areas of responsibility and trace their roots to the very first course taught at USAFSOS. The purpose of these courses is to educate the SOF warrior to the cultural, historical, political, economic and security issues of a particular region. Regional courses include offering covering Africa, Europe, Asia, Central and South America and the Pacific.
3. Special Operations courses indoctrinate new members of AFSOC and prepare Air Force special operators for global missions. Special operations courses include Special Operations Air Command and Control and Intelligence.
4. The USAFSOS Language Center provides initial acquisition, sustainment and just in time language training across a range of Department of Defense established critical languages.
Several USAFSOS courses utilize expert guest speakers, many at the top of their field, to ensure the most timely and relevant information is provided to the students. Over 700 such guest speakers, including former ambassadors, distinguished academicians, and active duty and retired flag-rank officers, regularly support USAFSOS. USAFSOS meets an increasing demand for "thinking warriors."
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal Corps, the USAF was established as a separate branch of the United States Armed Forces in 1947 with the enactment of the National Security Act of 1947. It is the second youngest branch of the United States Armed Forces and the fourth in order of precedence. The United States Air Force articulates its core missions as air supremacy, global integrated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility, global strike, and command and control.
The United States Army Special Forces (SF), colloquially known as the "Green Berets" due to their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force of the United States Army.
Lackland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base located in Bexar County, Texas. The base is under the jurisdiction of the 802d Mission Support Group, Air Education and Training Command (AETC) and an enclave of the city of San Antonio. It is the only site for USAF and United States Space Force enlisted Basic Military Training (BMT).
United States special operations forces (SOF) are the special forces of the United States Department of Defense's United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) within the United States Armed Forces, used for special operations.
Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Florida, is the special operations component of the United States Air Force. An Air Force major command (MAJCOM), AFSOC is also the U.S. Air Force component command to United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), a unified combatant command located at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. AFSOC provides all Air Force Special Operations Forces (SOF) for worldwide deployment and assignment to regional unified combatant commands.
Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) is the term used in the United States Armed Forces and some other military forces for a qualified service member who directs the action of military aircraft engaged in close air support and other offensive air operations from a forward position. The term that is used in most other countries, as well as previously in the U.S. and in the relevant NATO standard, is Forward Air Controller. The term became effective in the U.S. on September 3, 2003 with the publishing of Joint Publication (JP) 3-09.3 Close Air Support.
Air University is a professional military education university system of the United States Air Force. It is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award master's degrees.
Special Reconnaissance (SR)—formerly Special Operations Weather Technician or Team (SOWT)—is conducted by trained Air Force personnel assigned to Special Tactics Squadrons of the United States Air Force Special Operations Command who operate deep behind enemy lines to conduct covert direction of air and missile attacks, place remotely monitored sensors, and support other special operation units. Like other special operations units, SR units may also carry out direct action (DA) and unconventional warfare (UW), including guerrilla operations. As SOWTs they were tactical observer/forecasters with ground combat capabilities and fell under the Air Force Special Tactics within the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). The mission of a Special Operations Weather Technician was to deploy by the most feasible means available into combat and non-permissive environments to collect and interpret meteorological data and provide air and ground forces commanders with timely, accurate intelligence. They collect data, assist mission planning, generate accurate and mission-tailored target and route forecasts in support of global special operations, conduct special weather reconnaissance and train foreign national forces. SOWTs provided vital intelligence and deployed with joint air and ground forces in support of direct action, counter-terrorism, foreign internal defense, humanitarian assistance, special reconnaissance, austere airfield, and combat search and rescue.
The Joint Forces Staff College (JFSC), located in Norfolk, Virginia, was established as the Armed Forces Staff College in 1946 and incorporated into the National Defense University in August 1981. It educates and acculturates joint and multinational warfighters to plan and lead at the operational level. Military operations increasingly require the Armed Services to work jointly, and JFSC provides students the tools to operate in a joint environment. JFSC is composed of four schools, each with different student populations and purposes.
Lieutenant General Donald C. Wurster is a retired Commander, Air Force Special Operations Command, Hurlburt Field, FL. The command is a major command of the U.S. Air Force and the Air Force component of U.S. Special Operations Command. AFSOC provides Air Force Special Operations Forces for worldwide deployment and assignment to unified combatant commanders. The command has approximately 12,900 active-duty, Reserve, Air National Guard and civilian professionals.
The Joint Special Operations University (JSOU) is the designated agency within USSOCOM to conduct joint Special Operations Force (SOF) education and thus is tasked with and directed to provide relevant, realistic, leading-edge education opportunities to military and civilian special operations forces personnel around the world, located at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, United States.
The 18th Special Operations Test and Evaluation Squadron is an active unit of the United States Air Force, based at Hurlburt Field, Florida. The squadron performs field testing for Air Force Special Operations Command, evaluating aircraft, equipment, and tactics in realistic battlespace environments to provide decision-makers with accurate, timely, and complete assessments of mission capability. From concept development to system fielding, the unit's mission improves the survivability and combat capability of special operations forces worldwide.
Twenty-Third Air Force was a Numbered Air Force that was assigned to Air Force Special Operations Command. It was stationed at Hurlburt Field, Florida and was active from 1 January 2008 until 4 April 2013. It served as the operational headquarters for Air Force special operations forces assigned to joint and combined commands. Starting in 2012, it transferred operational control of some of its units to other headquarters; its remaining functions were assumed by the Air Force Special Operations Command Air Operations Center when it was inactivated the following year.
In United States military doctrine, unconventional warfare is one of the core activities of irregular warfare. Unconventional warfare is essentially support provided by the military to a foreign insurgency or resistance. The legal definition of UW is:
Unconventional Warfare consists of activities conducted to enable a resistance movement or insurgency to coerce, disrupt or overthrow an occupying power or government by operating through or with an underground, auxiliary or guerrilla force in a denied area.
Combat Rescue Officer (CRO) is a Special Warfare Officer career field in the United States Air Force. Its Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC) is 19ZXC and it was created to strengthen USAF Special Warfare personnel recovery capabilities by providing commissioned officer leadership that possessed an operational skillset paralleling that of the enlisted pararescuemen (PJ). The CRO specialty includes direct combatant command and control of Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) operations. They plan, manage and execute the six tasks of CSAR: prepare, report, locate, support, recover, and reintegrate isolated personnel and materiel. CROs conduct strategic, operational and tactical level planning, provide battle staff expertise, manage theater personnel recovery operations and conduct combat special operations.
The average member of the United States Navy's Sea, Air, Land Teams (SEALs) spends over a year in a series of formal training environments before being awarded the Special Warfare Operator Naval Rating and the Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC) O26A Combatant Swimmer (SEAL) or, in the case of commissioned naval officers, the designation 113X Special Warfare Officer. All Navy SEALs must attend and graduate from their rating's 24-week "A" School known as Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) school, a basic parachutist course and then the 26-week SEAL Qualification Training program.
The United States Air Force Special Operations Training Center (AFSOTC) was located at Hurlburt Field, Florida. It worked under the supervision of the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC); Its primary function was to train the Air Force's Special Operations Personnel before being assigned to their respective units. The Mission Statement/Vision was, "Transforming Airmen into Air Commandos who possess the specialized skills and warrior ethos to fight and win anytime, anywhere." The AFSOTC was replaced February 11, 2013 by the Air Force Special Operations Air Warfare Center.
A United States Air Force Tactical Air Control Party, commonly abbreviated TACP, is an individual or team of United States Air Force Special Warfare Airmen with AFSC 1Z3X1, who are aligned with conventional, Special Operation Forces, and Tier 1 combat maneuver units. They provide precision terminal attack control and terminal attack guidance of U.S. and coalition fixed- and rotary-wing close air support aircraft, artillery, and naval gunfire; establish and maintain command and control (C2) communications; and advise ground commanders on the best use of air power.
The United States Special Operations Command is the unified combatant command charged with overseeing the various special operations component commands of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force of the United States Armed Forces. The command is part of the Department of Defense and is the only unified combatant command created by an Act of Congress. USSOCOM is headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.
Cannon Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base, located approximately 7 miles (11 km) southwest of Clovis, New Mexico. It is under the jurisdiction of Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). The host unit at Cannon is the 27th Special Operations Wing, which activated on 1 October 2007. The 27 SOW plans and executes specialized and contingency operations using advanced aircraft, tactics and air refueling techniques to infiltrate, exfiltrate and resupply special operations forces (SOF) and provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and close air support in support of SOF operations.
