I thought it time to explain what exactly it was I did for the Marine Corps. My official title is Tactical Air Defense Controller (MOS designator 7236). Our unit provides long range surveillance (including theater missile defense), itinerate and enroute air traffic control (we get them once air traffic control is done with them), and the control of aircraft and surface to air weapons.

That is all well and good but what the hell does it mean? On the surveillance side, we are given a piece of airspace outlined by imaginary boundaries. Any aircraft that fly into this area need to be detected, identified, and classified. This is accomplished by evaluating the profile the aircraft is flying (ie does he fly like a good guy or bad guy?) and any electronic identification the aircraft might be sending such as information friend or foe (IFF). All aircraft have some form of IFF but sometimes they input the wrong information or there is a hardware failure (either on our end or theirs) that makes it impossible to positively identify the target (the little “blips” on our screen). Based on our perceived threat, a matrix is generated that will help us decided whether or not he is a good guy, bad guy, or an unknown (the infamous “bogey”). Once we figure out who he is, we post a symbol over the “blip” for easy reference (good, bad, neutral etc).

Now that we have figured out what and who it is, we need to figure out what we’re going to do with it. If it’s a good guy we need to get him from point a to point b. There are other imaginary boundaries in the sky that aid us to safely route aircraft around the airspace, this is done by our traffic section. If the radar is working properly this is an easy process, if not we bust out the Crayola and start scribbling on anything within arm’s reach, quite literally. It is not uncommon to mark all over the walls and your hands.

If we’re lucky enough to find a bad guy, the fun starts. Our weapons section is tasked with defeating the treat, be it in the air or on the ground. If we know we’re dealing with a bad guy we want to keep him at long range and shoot him down, the longer the range the better. If we are dealing with a bogey the good guy is forced to visually identify the aircraft in question. This will force the good guy to fly within the weapons employment envelope of the bogey, pilots just love that scenario.

I prefer dealing with ground threats. The slimy terrorists out here don’t have any aircraft so we don’t see any air to air action. Because we cant see the ground with our radar we aren’t able to drop bombs on targets in areas that have friendly ground troops, that job is handled by another agency in the Marine Corps (this mission is referred to as close air support and is what you typically see in the movies when they call for fire). If we know there aren’t any good guys in an area then we are free to drop bombs without any further coordination, this is lots of fun! There is nothing better than blowing up bad guys before they get a chance to do any damage. There is nothing more gratifying than destroying the enemy when they’re engaging the good guys though. We had one such situation when the war first kicked off. Hearing troops in contact thank you and tell you that you saved their lives is something you just cant imagine. It was my proudest moment while serving and I wasn’t even directly involved (another Marine was controlling at the time).

Unfortunately it doesn’t always go our way, one such occasion happened last night. Another function of our traffic section is to manage tanker aircraft. Our higher headquarters has decided that we’re not worthy of controlling the tankers out here (our only real function in this war so they want the “glory”). Last night we had a tanker request RTB (return to base), we asked him how much fuel he had remaining and decided it would be better to leave him up in the event somebody could use some gas. About a minute later we receive word that there are troops in contact (TIC) in our area of responsibility. We contacted higher headquarters and told them we wanted to keep the tanker up to support the TIC. After pulling their heads out, they agree (after about 2 minutes of silence on the phone) the best place for the tanker is to support the fighter aircraft that are supporting the Marines on the ground. We train hard for the proper employment of air assets and it’s nice to know you made the right choice when it mattered (even better when headquarters screws up and you do it anyways with a good outcome).

Unfortunately our success came at a heavy price, while we removed 9 enemies from the battlefield we lost one of our own. This war is still very real!