Elite Fire Fighters Serve In Austere Environments
by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Ryan Brooks July 26,
2021
A quick reaction force (QRF) is an elite unit, comprised of
Airmen from multiple squadrons trained in combat and evasion. These
Airmen are not only highly skilled professionals, but they undergo
special training to perform their duties in austere and potentially
hostile environments.
Recently, the fire fighter component
of the QRF, from the 386th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron,
was sent to a forward operating base in Syria to provide support to
its flight line.
A quick reaction force, comprised of members of
the 386th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron, stand in
front of military vehicles at a forward operating base in
Syria on May 22, 2021. The QRF are elite units, made up of
Airmen from multiple squadrons trained in combat and
evasion. (U.S. Air Force courtesy photo)
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“This team is made up of highly qualified firefighting
professionals trained for bare environments,” said Senior Master
Sgt. Michael Rigsby, 386th ECES deputy fire chief. “We're a rare
group. Also, it's just not very common for fire fighters to get sent
on a forward deployment. I've been in 16 years and this was my first
time.”
The purpose of the QRF firefighters in Syria was to
provide flight line support per Air Mobility Command instructions.
This allowed for a limitless number of aircraft to take off and land
and people and equipment to be removed for rotation. Their mission
was to provide support so that the Army’s M2A2 Bradley Fighting
Vehicle unit could be extracted and replaced.
“We flew in
with three fire trucks and our firefighting equipment. The Army was
due to change out their people and equipment and our presence
allowed more aircraft to land in a shorter time span,” said Rigsby.
“That enabled the Army to keep their same level of base/area
protection and perform change out 16 days quicker.”
While
the QRF fire fighters are tactically trained to operate under
hostile and combative conditions, their essential duties are the
same as non-QRF fire fighters. They are vital to safe and expedient
flight line standards.
“Our primary job on a flight line is
to provide it with crash fire support so that they can maintain air
operations over the area of responsibility and also to provide
hazmat and medical support as well,” said Senior Airman Travis
Ferrell, 386th ECES firefighter. “So if anything goes down on the
flight line, we respond. Whether it's an in-flight or ground
emergency, we will respond to mitigate any possible crisis that
could happen. We like to say we're the insurance policy for anything
that happens on the flight line.”
Without the fire fighter
component of QRF the flight line would only be able to support a
limited number of aircraft taking off and landing per week, but with
the QRF the number of flights were unlimited. They supported 15
aircraft at two per day during their 30-day mission.
QRF
members went through pre-deployment combat skills training at Camp
MacGregor and Evasion, Conduct After Capture training at Joint Base
Lackland, TX. This type of training is for Airmen who will be
operating outside the wire in high-risk environments.
“As
QRF, we go to pre-deployment training so that we can deploy to
places that don't have established support, like FOBs,” said
Ferrell. “Here, at Ali Al Salem, we have great support and
infrastructure but we didn't find that in Syria. We had nothing
there.
“We had to find our own water sources. We had to
basically write our own standard operating procedures while we were
out there on the fly. For instance, this is where we're going to
stage and this is how we're going to respond. We get there. We make
all these decisions. We face all these challenges, and then we
complete the mission as quickly as we can, pack up and move on to
somewhere else keeping the mission alive wherever we go.”
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