Defend the base: 51 SFS Combat Readiness Course

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jake Barreiro
  • 51st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --  This is the third in a series of articles relating an overview of the mission at Osan Air Base. The major role Team Osan plays in the Republic of Korea and the extent of its mission will be showcased in the way Team Osan's Airmen "Defend the base". Next week, there will be in-depth look at how the base executes operations. Concluding the series will be a wrap-up article with a video showing the broad spectrum of the base's mission.

The title is securely germane to protection and safety. Applicable not just nominally, there's a reason why the men and women of the 51st Security Forces Squadron, at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, call themselves "defenders." 

SFS Airmen are conspicuous at Team Osan. They can be seen manning any of the base's gates, the entry control points on the flight line, roaming the streets of the Songtan Entertainment District, and running patrols on the base days, nights, weekends and holidays. The men and women of the 51st SFS are responsible for an imperturbable mission of day-long, year-round mission execution which includes daily security operations along with emergency response procedures to ensure the safety of more than 10,000 U.S. and Korean service members and their families.

Defenders have divers duties and jobs that include them working not just with weapons, armored vehicles, protective vests and military working dogs, but also with agencies across the base to accomplish security on a logistics level, as well as the usual paperwork that comes with doing emergency work.

Yet, as with all other professions, SFS Airmen have to continuously reload and refine their skills in order to provide the absolute best service they can. One way in which the 51st SFS ensures their newly assigned defenders keep prepared is by mandating all of them to complete the Combat Readiness Course after inprocessing Osan AB.

The CRC is a five-day course designed to teach or re-teach SFS Airmen to perform tactical, administrative, communicative, combative, and emergency procedures in a practice environment to ensure they're prepared for real world emergencies. It's a course meant to benefit seasoned and new defenders alike.

Staff Sgt. Ezell Trammell III, 51st SFS training instructor and teacher for the active-shooter portion of the CRC, said the training helps SFS and ROK Airmen be better prepared for base defense.

"It's all critical because we never know when (emergencies) will arise," said Trammell. "We have to be prepared, we have to be ready."

The course prepares the participants through rigorous and realistic training, said Trammell. By practicing emergency and high-stress scenarios like active-shooter exercises, the SFS Airmen are able to developed muscle memory and be better prepared to respond to real world scenarios.

"The training doesn't just teach us either," said Trammell. "We use it to teach the other military and civilian people on base how to respond and act too."

Many of the techniques and ideas taught during the CRC are cribbed from the SFS tech school, but each one is adapted and applied to an Osan-specific scenario. For the active-shooter exercise, the 51st SFS Airmen teamed up with the ROKAF to ingress buildings under attack and subdue the attackers. Additionally, the CRC uses a number of volunteers from around the base to play opposition forces, helping the SFS further educate the base on what they're doing and why, said Trammell. 

Ultimately, the CRC gives neophyte and veteran Airmen a chance to develop or buttress their skills, and that helps make Osan AB a safer place.

"All the training we do for the CRC is unique, Osan-specific," said Trammell. "It's a good way to test ourselves and push our abilities to the limit."

That concludes our coverage of how different units and Airmen at Team Osan help defend the base. Next week we'll show how Team Osan executes operations with features on the 51st LRS Vehicle Maintenance Flight and Aircrew Flight Equipment team.