Vincent J. Curtis
Date: Dec 7, 2010
Dateline: FOB Sharana
[Note: This interview was done quickly, and there was no opportunity for follow-up to check on terminology and clarify inaudible portions. What is presented below is a best effort at transcribing, at times phonetically, the acronyms and terminology used by Sgt Poulou in the course of the interview.]
Sgt Mitchell Poulou, 30, is a native of American Samoa, and is usually stationed at Fort Bragg – Pope Air Base in North Carolina. He has served twelve years in the military. He is recently married, with December 23rd being his second anniversary. At the time of the interview, his wife was on her way home to North Carolina from Iraq.
Q. What is your current tasking?
A. I’m currently a JTAC, within the tactee career field. JTAC stands for Joint Terminal Attack Controller.
Q. How much training did it take for you to get into that job?
A. I actually crossed trained, meaning changing jobs, within the Air Force. This took place about two years ago. For an average tactee airman straight out of basic training it takes anywhere from four to five years to get his JTAC certification. For a cross-trainee, we’re pretty much on a fast-track. It took me about a year to get my certification.
Q. Lets talk about Air Ops. I guess there are two types, one is administrative and the other is tactical.
A. Correct. All the JTACs here are trained on both levels, as far as manning the TAC floor, or actually becoming operators, whichever mission is going out there. JTAC is always on standby for support.
Q. Are JTACs the ones who fly the drones?
A. Negative. The drones are actually controlled out of – if we’re talking about Predators or Reapers – they’re actually flown out of Las Vegas at an Air Base called “Creech.”
Q. Okay, so what is that you are coordinating? Is it tactical then?
A. Correct. Whenever we’re out there – boots on the ground – with our army counterparts, there has to be some type of qualifying member that can distinguish between cowboys and indians on the ground whenever the aircraft – we call it ‘kinetic effects’ when the bombs actually leave the aircraft there actually has to be a person there directing those bombs via the pilot or the controller of the UAV birds to put those bombs on target.
Q. So, this isn’t like a Forward Air Controller, this is somebody back here?
A. Forward Air Controller, and then there’s a step above, which is a JTAC. Within the army, they call them JFOs, Joint Fire Observers. In order for them to take the next step up there’s a course at Las Vegas. Every TAC team member if he progresses in his career field has to go to to get that certification.
Q. Are this folks on the ground or are they back here?
A. Both. We have JTACs that can control either from the TOC or they can control from the ground itself.
Q. What type of tactical aircraft do you fly?
A. We don’t really fly, we just control them. Whenever they enter our airspace the assignment of control with be to JTAC.
Q. What sort of aircraft would you guys be controlling?
A. Pretty much anything that flies and has bombs on them. That’s our specialty. Anything that can make the ground go “boom”, we can control them, from arty to naval gunships, to helicopters.
Q. Would it be fair to say that the primary aircraft that you guys would be working on would be the F-16 Fighting Falcon and the Apache helicopter?
A. For the TAC team community, the bread and butter comes from the A-10 Warhog, and that’s the primary task platform. Every single time a TAC team has one on station, we try to get a hold of him. But anything that can go kinetic, we control. For the most part here, within our AO, we’ve been seeing a lot of F-16s, F-15s , F-18s either from US or coalition forces.
Q. The F-15 is primarily an air superiority fighter, and for that matter so is the F-18. Why is it in theatre? It’s not like the Taliban have an air force.
A. Exactly, but for right now, as I said, there’s only so many A-10s out there, so in order for them to back-fill they actually get fighters that are currently made for air to air combat. They’re still qualified to put air to ground combat - per se - if they do go kinetic – put bombs on target on the ground. Over the last few years we really have seen anything as far that OJAG up in the air, going at it. So it’s pretty much air to ground, so far.
Q. Do you guys work with the AC-130, or is that a completely different command?
A. We do work with the AC-130s but a gunship, known as Spooky, is primarily a reserve for [inaudible] forces because they only fly at night, but at times we do see them and do control them.
Q. On average, how many missions would you guys run in a month in this area?
A. Within 4th Brigade, I just recently moved from being the head JTAC down at [inaudible], which is right across the street. Up here we primarily control two battalions in two AOs, that’s Red Currahee and White Currahee. So, within any given day as far as aircraft on station, we’re looking at, probably, six to seven hours of controlling; and our job, up here at brigade level, is to oversee, in case we do go ‘kinetic effects’ or ‘bombs on target’, is make sure all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed so that way we can prevent fratricide, or killing the good guys instead of killing the bad guys.
Q. Or cause too much collateral damage?
A. Exactly. Exactly.
Q. Typically, how many times would you guys go kinetic in a month?
A. So far, since I’ve been up here, and I just recently moved up, from the 1st/ 506, at the desk we dropped at total of four bombs.
Q. In a month, on average?
A. I’ve been here about two weeks now, so in two weeks we dropped four.
Q. All right, so eight then, we’ve got eight. I guess its too early for you to observe it, but has there been a fall-off of Taliban activity between, say, September and now?
A. Yes there has. I’m pretty sure every single person within the US military and everyone tracking it that when it gets cold outside it seems that no one wants to come out and play. Especially with the Ky Pass being closed with the snowfall and whatnot. Common sense will tell anyone it’s going to slow down until spring time approaches.
Q. Do you do any work on the administrative side?
A. For the admin side of the house, yes, we still got to maintain our NCO duties. As far as taking care of our guys, we call them [inaudible] performance reports. We still got to maintain that. [Inaudible]. For the JTAC duties, as I mentioned earlier, we’ve got to make sure that all the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed for the JTAC that’s actually on the ground, because we’re pretty much the last guys they go through before they actually drop the bombs. We can say “yes, you’ve got all bases covered” and “go at it, Dude. Blow ‘em up.”
Q. By administrative I also mean flights that are not tactical. Like movement of supplies, movement of people, are you involved in that at all?
A. Negative. Negative. We are not. The only time we actually get involved is if we have a good working relationship with our Intel folks, and if they’re [inaudible] into the whole air game. We’re pretty much spun-up as far as deconfliction. If we do have an ISR asset on station we can take control via the intel guys and help them out as far as, okay, we can go in and deconflict for you. That’s pretty much our specialty, deconflicting the air space and making sure the right bombs come off the right aircraft.
Q. How important do you think your air mission is in terms of getting success on the ground?
A. For the most part, very. I don’t mean to toot the JTAC’s horn too much, but just in case the army runs out of ‘hoo-wa” that’s why the JTAC is there. Precision firepower from the air, any given day and any given time of the day. Yes, they miss sometimes, but so far as precision engagement, the JTAC is there to accomplish that mission, per the ground commander.
Q. One of the threats that I saw used on the ground when I was on a mission is the belief out there among the population that they’re being surveilled at lot. And there’s a chance that if the Taliban move into their area there’s a chance that they might get this bolt from the sky and this guy gets blow to bits, and maybe some of them as well, in terms of collateral damage. Now, that’s a psychological threat, and it seems to be a tool that they’re using out in the field, how much reality is there to it? Are you guys out there with your drones keeping an eye out for movement of people, suspicious movement, like two guys on a motorcycle riding down a wadi. Are you guys out there patrolling, doing that?
A. For the air force side of the house, the only time we bring aircraft on station is when they actually need us. The main purpose is going kinetic, putting bombs on target. But if it’s just a “warm and fuzzy” yes we do support that for our friendly force that’s moving out there. Just give them that feeling inside that there is always someone watching over them just in case something might happen. But as far as collateral damage and stuff like that, like I said that’s our bread and butter. We do know how to dot our i’s and cross our t’s when it comes to stuff like that. We help out the ground commander make his decision; we advise him that, yes, we can use [inaudible] on this, or, no, there’s too much civilian populace running around and no we cannot. And that’s the only reason why they bring the air force side of the house instead into the army playground because we have our own chain of command. We can actually tell the ground commander, no, we’re not going to do it, and we are protected from the blue side, just in case he might want to use that army proverb “oh, you will drop.” No, the JTAC is the final approving authority.
Q. You belong to the air force, then, not the army?
A. Correct. I’m in the air force.
Q. Is there anything you’d like to tell me that you think I should know or the public should know about the work you do here?
A. Its difficult at times from being from the air force side of the house. But as far as training and everything goes, we live, eat, and breathe just like you guys do, and I just hope the public realizes the Air Force is – from their point of view the Air Force pretty much all they do is fly airplanes or work in the rear per se but there are guys out there running around with the army guys.
VJC. That’s good. Thank you very much.
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