More than Airmen: services are combining forces, blurring the lines between Airmen, Marines, Soldiers and Sailors

Airman, Sept, 2004 by Orville F. Desjarlais, Jr.

Such jointness

It may seem new to many Airmen, Marines, Sailors and Soldiers, but the renewed drive toward working together on and off the battlefield has a rich history--one that will surely carry into the future.

--Contributing writers: Master Sgt. Charles Roberts and Tech. Sgt. Mark Kinkade

RELATED ARTICLE: Crossing into the green: for these two Airmen, being a good soldier helped them stay alive.

by Tech. Sgt. Orville F. Desjarlais Jr.

More and more Airmen are finding themselves training for convoy duty, deploying to Iraq and making mad dashes from point A to point B while under the watchful eye of the enemy. It's dangerous duty.

During a convoy, Staff Sgt. Amelia Grahn was thrown headfirst through the windshield of her five-ton cargo truck after it smashed into the vehicle in front following an explosion on the streets of Iraq.

Capt. John Blocher, an A-10 Thunderbolt II pilot from Pope Air Force Base, S.C., found himself face to face with the enemy, staying alive only by pulling the trigger of an M-4 carbine quicker than the enemy.

Sergeant Grahn and Captain Blocher gained a different perspective of the war in Iraq. It wasn't from an airplane, or hundreds of miles away on an Air Force base. It was from the front lines and it's a view they'll never forget.

After Sergeant Grahn received convoy training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., she followed up with training in Kuwait. She learned to fire an M-4 carbine and received combat simulator training. She drilled in weapons tactics and maneuvers, Global Positioning System navigation and troop-leading procedures.

Armed with a head full of knowledge, she deployed to provide security for Army convoys in Iraq--once a job reserved only for security forces. One day in May, she was forced to use all she had learned.

"We were told we couldn't drive on our regular route, so we had to take an alternate road," the sergeant from Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England, said.

While the convoy weaved its way through the narrow streets of a small town, an improvised explosive devise exploded. Her truck rear-ended the vehicle in front of hers and she flew through the windshield, smashing her knees against the dashboard.

"While the guy manning the M-60 checked on our injured driver, I was asked to man the M-60, which I did until the situation stabilized," she said.

She dislocated both knee caps and her legs swelled so much she was evacuated to Germany until the swelling subsided. The Air Force took her off convoy duty and tasked her to become an Army dispatcher, which she did until she returned home in August, after having spent 188 days in Iraq.

Living with the Army

Captain Blocher was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division as a battalion air liaison officer--a job that demonstrates joint-service cooperation.

"I try to figure out how the Air Force and Army can integrate on the battlefield so the Air Force can blow stuff up and the Army won't blow up the Air Force, and vice versa," the A-10 pilot said.

The captain was in charge of two enlisted terminal attack controllers and an inexperienced ROMAD--reconnaissance, observation, mark and destroy, or from Vietnam: radio operator, maintainer and driver. This theater air control party, known as TACP, call in close air support for the 300 to 1,000 Soldiers that compose a battalion. Captain Blocher was the air liaison to senior Army staff and assisted in coordinating close air support. The captain fought alongside the Army from March 20 to April 16. Those 27 days changed his life forever.