Adm. Bill H. McRaven, U.S. Special
Operations Command commander, gives retired Air Force Master Sgt.
Scott Fales USSOCOM's Bull Simons Award May 23, 2012, in Tampa, Fla.
This lifetime achievement award, named for Army Col. Arthur “Bull”
Simons, honors the spirit, values, and skills of the unconventional
warrior. Photo by USAF Master Sgt. Larry Carpenter |
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TAMPA, Fla. (5/30/2012) — Retired Air Force Master Sgt. and
pararescueman Scott Fales received U.S. Special Operations Command's
highest honor when he was awarded the 2012 Bull Simons Award in
Tampa, Fla., May 23. This lifetime achievement award, named for Army
Col. Arthur “Bull” Simons, honors the spirit, values, and skills of
the unconventional warrior.
His extensive career in special
operations has spanned more than three decades both in uniform and
as a civil servant. As a “PJ,” Fales was recognized by the Jolly
Green's Association performing “Rescue of the Year” twice and in
1992 he was one of the Air Force's 12 Outstanding Airman. His combat
experiences were on the battlefields of Panama, Iraq and Somalia.
His work as a civilian with the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency has
been instrumental in the rescue of hostages around the world.
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Fales was born in Hagarstown, Md., and grew up in the
Appalachian Mountains of western Maryland. Living an
adventurous childhood, Fales would spend entire summers
living completely outside.
“We used to call living
outside ‘running the ridges' and it was great fun,” Fales
said. “Quite frankly there was not a ton of opportunity for
a young fella at that time in his life who is not going to
college so I enlisted in the Air Force and became a Security
Policeman.”
Enlisting in March 1977, Fales served
three years as a security policeman. One day he noticed some
men running across a ramp on a flightline at Davis-Monthan
Air Force Base.
“I saw these guys running and I said,
‘What do you guys do for a living?' They said, ‘We dive and
climb and jump out of airplanes and rescue people all over
the world and we get paid for it.' I said, ‘Well that's for
me.'”
Fales would become a pararescuman in October
1980 and spend the next decade being assigned at Davis-Monthan
Air Force Base Arizona; Keflavik Naval Air Station, Iceland;
and Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.
In 1982 he
received the Jolly Green Association “Rescue of the Year
Award” for the rescue of eight victims of an aircraft crash
high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. While in Iceland, he
led over 40 rescue missions in the Icelandic mountains,
glaciers and the frigid North Atlantic, saving 56 lives and
earned the 1986 Jolly Green Association “Mission of the
Year.”
In December 1989, Fales would get his first
combat experience when he was part of the first wave of
assault aircraft in Operation Just Cause, where he made a
night combat parachute jump to seize Torios-Tacuman
International Airport in Panama.
“His role was to
get the airfield up and running, be prepared to treat and
evacuate the wounded, and be on call for the next mission,”
said retired Col. Craig Brotchie, former 720th Special
Tactics Group commander. “It was the wet season, we were
concerned about ground fog, coming in there at night with
C-141 aircraft, so we were concerned about getting a
navigation aid in on the ground to assist the airplanes. If
we don't have a successful airdrop at Torios-Tacuman then we
are operating from a secondary position.”
Fales whose
first job was to set up a navigational aid described they
had practiced extensively for the mission, but there is
always a fear of uncertainty and combat situations are often
fluid.
“I was jumping with a jump clearing team,
which is team of guys who are out first over the airfield
and our job is to make sure the airfield is open,” said
Fales. “I remember inside the airplane they came back from
the cockpit and yelled ‘Hey, they know you are coming. We
intercepted a phone call and they know what time you will be
there.' Everybody is thinking ‘Great, good news for us.' We
figured it would be a little rougher than we anticipated.”
Echoing the fear of uncertainty jumping into Panama,
retired Chief Master Sgt. Les Wolfe, a fellow PJ, described
the combat night jump.
“As you can imagine, a lot of
the things the warriors were faced with in Panama, as with
any conflict, couldn't be anticipated. You know if you step
out of an airplane you are going to fall to the ground, but
you didn't know when you were under canopy they were going
to pick you off while you were descending,” said Wolfe.
“That wasn't really anticipated, but that is exactly what
took place. Consequently, a lot of the war-related injuries
took place before the Soldier even hit the ground.”
Fales and the American forces would ultimately be successful
and depose Dictator Manuel Noriega.
In April 1990
Fales was selected for duty at the 24th Special Tactics
Squadron, where he rose to non-commissioned officer in
charge of an operational Special Tactics team. While there
he fought in Operation Desert Storm where he conducted
classified recovery missions in western Iraq.
In
August of 1993 Fales was assigned to Task Force Ranger in
Mogadishu, Somalia. On the fateful day of Oct. 3, he led the
search and rescue of “Super 6-1” a Black Hawk helicopter
shot down by a rocket propelled grenade. Fales and fellow
PJ, Tech. Sgt. Timothy Wilkinson, who would earn the Air
Force Cross for actions at Mogadishu, were flying in “Super
6-8” toward the crash site.
“Normally when you assess
a crash site one of our tactics is to turn hard over the top
of the site and look down on top of it to see exactly what
you have and then come back and set up on an approach and
either land or fast rope to the crash,” Fales said. “In this
particular case, (Super 6-1) brownout was very bad, the
enemy situation was very bad, enemy fire was very high, to
include lots of RPGs being fired at the helicopter in the
sky, so it was made clear we were only going to have one
attempt. So we basically flew straight to the relative
vicinity of the crash site.”
“At one point, I
distinctly recall looking at Scott as we sat opposite of
each other in the cabin and as we were moving and gyrating
getting ready to come in with the flare and posture we just
looked at each other, made eye contact and nodded, ‘ok here
we go,'” Wilkinson said.
“We fast roped into the
street. During that fast rope it raised a tremendous amount
of dust and you couldn't see anything. As we collected at
the crash the enemy zeroed in on our location and steady
rifle fire increased and while all of that was happening I
was hit in the leg,” said Fales.
Retired Col. Ken
Rodriguez, Fales' former commander, described his tenacity
that day and his refusal to stop fighting even after being
wounded.
“Some things that strike me about his
actions on the third and fourth of October, them going into
the fray the way they did, going down the ropes, firefight
ensuing, the helicopter they are fast roping from gets hit
by an RPG while they are on the ropes and all hell is
breaking loose,” Rodriguez said. “After he gets wounded, he
continues to care for the wounded and returned deadly
accurate fire, and at one point, finally has to give himself
an IV to keep from going into shock. Just amazing.”
For his actions that day Fales received the Silver Star and
the Purple Heart. Lessons he learned that day would provide
the foundation for future combat search and rescue (CSAR)
training to both active duty SOF and the Joint Service
Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape Agency.
“I
can tell we had not done an engagement like that, at that
time in 1993, since Vietnam,” said Fales. “We had not done
any urban CSAR, a real close-quarter urban CSAR, a downed
helicopter being swarmed by enemy personnel. It was a
tremendous amount of lessons learned and it drove training
programs for us for a long time.”
Retiring from the
active duty Air Force in April of 1997 Fales joined the
Joint Service SERE Agency as a personnel recovery operations
officer. While there, he instructed personnel recovery
courses, developed specialized training for sensitive SOF
and reconnaissance operators, and assisted the Department of
State to develop recovery capabilities in support of
counter-drug operations in Central and South America. In
1999 the Joint Services SERE Agency and the Joint Combat
Search and Rescue Agency merged and became the Joint
Personnel Recovery Agency and is headquartered at Fort
Belvoir, Va.
The ingenuity and tenacity Fales had as
a PJ was quickly recognized by his colleagues at JPRA.
“Scottie told me a project I was working on would go
forward and asked me to write up the requirements for the
government acceptance tests. The one thing I didn't have was
an RJ, (Rivet Joint aircraft) a very specific aircraft,”
said Brian Healy, JPRA colleague. “It was no more than seven
days later I was out in New Mexico and as I was working with
this technology, 30,000 feet above me, was an RJ flying
overhead. That was a direct result of Scottie. I don't know
how he did it. That was the one big, big hurdle we needed
for this test. I still don't know to this day how he did
it.”
In April 2006, Fales returned to the Joint
Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., serving as
the JPRA Command Representative to JSOC, providing personnel
recovery, technical surveillance, advice, expertise and
assistance to the commander of JSOC. Today, Fales is the
Director of Personnel Recovery for the 724th Special Tactics
Group.
Fales' more than 30 years in special
operations, significant contributions on the battlefield and
his dogged commitment to American CSAR training is why he
was selected as the 2012 Bull Simons recipient. Reflecting
on his memories and experiences Fales describes the essence
of SOF nostalgically.
“There are times that sort of
sink into your memory and you never forget them,” he said.
“A row of little birds all lined up in perfect alignment and
synchronization. One of those nights absolutely pitch dark,
but some lights way off in the distance, you never forget
the smells, the sounds, the temperature, and what we were
there doing and through the fog you think about the awesome
power of the United States...And that is SOF...That's what SOF
guys do.”
By Michael Bottoms
U.S. Special Operations Command
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2012
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