Airmen, pilots bring a new atmosphere to communication

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Keith Holcomb
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  A room is illuminated by greens, whites and blues filled with the chatter of Airmen and civilians alike. Seemingly random words are paired with numbers creating sounds almost like another language. Hands waving and pointing to screens that resemble an 80’s arcade game, then writing on strips of paper with a swiftness only extreme repetition can create.

More Airmen stand in a nest of an office. High up they protect thousands of lives every year. Over 210,000 operations are ran under the Airmen in this tower.

The skill and speed of the Airmen working can only be produced through plenty of training and dedication. Communicating to hundreds of pilots a week, these men and women also have a talent for keeping their cool.

Like anyone else these Airmen started from somewhere.

Air Traffic Controllers from Columbus Air Force Base graduate from technical training with a knowledge of the basics, then learn to handle one of the busiest airspaces in the Air Force, keeping pilots and crew members safe day in and day out.

Airman 1st Class Anthony Garrido Guerro, 14th Operations Support Squadron ATC Journeyman, sits at a real world simulator to test his abilities with the radar equipment.

Much of what he does in his free time is study and practice the positions he has been assigned to learn in order to gain his 5-level as an ATC.

“I study pretty consistently throughout the weeks,” Garrido Guerro said. “I study weekdays and weekends to try and stay ahead.”

The simulations are meant to test the abilities of the 3-level Airmen, and test it does.

“The air traffic here is hard and the sims are harder,” Garrido Guerro said.

The simulations are run with real world aircraft in real time, but an instructor can change the data from there and create a harder scenario than the real life situation. They create more stressful environments to bring the intensity up and challenge the Airmen.

“You have to be able to handle the simulations,” said Senior Airman Henry Scott, 14th OSS ATC Journeyman. “They’ll overload the sims so you can handle anything that will actually happen.”

The constant movement and communication in the squadron combined with the busy airspace can cause stress to build fast.

There are a lot of factors that play a role in making Columbus Air Force Base busy for the Airmen, but the reason not a lot of people think about is the commercial aircraft are guided by its Air Traffic Controllers.
“Not a lot of people realize we don’t only deal with Air Force aircraft, we work with every aircraft in our airspace,” said Chief Master Sgt. Tammy Kinder-Tims, 14th OSS ATC Chief Controller. “In reality every time you fly in or out of the ‘Golden Triangle’ you’re talking to an Air Force controller.”

The Airmen in training are being prepared to take on these challenges.

“Our goal is to get the 3-levels to become rated and working so they can build experience and their confidence,” said Kimber-Tims. “Once they have reached a point where they’re working every day and are proficient, they teach others. The interesting thing about teaching the position you’ve been working is you learn so much more when you are instructing because you see it from a brand new perspective and that’s where a lot of job experience and confidence comes from.”

Columbus Air Traffic Controllers aid in the production of about 475 pilots annually, provide 40 or more controllers upgrade and qualification training at any time, and have deployed individuals feeding the fight.

“As far as mastering Air Traffic Control, it’s always something new,” Kimber-Tims said. “There’s always something to challenge us, but when we help the pilots take off and land safely, we are advancing the mission and that’s our end goal.”