Airmen learn to recognize, respond to threats at anti-terrorism driving course

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Brian Hill
  • Kaiserslautern American
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany --  The tires of the mud-covered Opel Vectra spin on wet pavement and the sedan launches toward a 90-degree turn with speed. The instructor in the passenger seat firmly tells the student driver to wait for instructions before deviating from the collision course.

The driver is white-knuckling the wheel and the two passengers in the back seat -fellow students - are starting to feel uneasy. At the last possible second, the instructor shouts, "NOW!" The student swerves the wheel to the right and slams in the clutch and brake pedals. The car skids to a stop two feet from the cones.

Everything worked out. No cones harmed. The little engine grumbles in idle and all is quiet for a second before the instructor says, "good," and tells the student to drive on to the next trial, a slalom course.

The driver is happy to comply; he's having a great time putting the car through this fast-paced obstacle course.

"When do you get to treat a car like this?" says the driver as he hits second gear, accelerating towards the slalom as fast as the little sedan will move.

The instructor in the passenger seat - a special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations - is providing some follow-up instruction from the three-hour morning classroom course, but mostly is just allowing the students to get the feel of the car while pushing it to its limits.

The training, called the Anti-terrorism Driving Course, is an intense, one-day course teaching students how to recognize and respond to threats while behind the wheel.

New to Ramstein, the course is taught by the AFOSI Detachment 501 - Joint Protective Services Detail - who provide morning classroom time at their offices in the U.S. Air Forces in Europe compound and the remainder of the day in the cars dealing with the cone obstacles on the far side of the flightline.

"Drivers learn to recognize a threat and respond to it," said Special Agent Shawn Simonton, special agent in charge at the detachment. "They get a full afternoon of pretty heavy driving.

"The tires talk to you," he continued. "We show them how much a car can safely take."

The course is scheduled on an as-needed basis and ideally has 12 students per day. It is now offered at Ramstein because the detachment was finally able to secure the needed driving space.

"Ramstein is a very busy place with a high ops tempo," said Special Agent Tom Odgers, head driving instructor at the detachment. "It took us a long time to find an appropriate area to conduct the training and then coordinate it with base operations so that our use of the area would not impair any other missions."

The four driving instructors assigned to the detachment stay very busy traveling all over the USAFE area of responsibility offering this course.

According to Agent Simonton, the course is conducted for many different drivers: wing commanders, flag officers, embassy staff, police and convoy drivers are just some of the types of people who've gone through the course. The classroom portion of the course teaches driving theory. In addition, the instructors detail how and why vehicles are positioned as they are in different types of convoys.

The driver training is modeled after studies of actual attack scenarios, and the training can be adapted to specific situations students may encounter. Rain or shine, the course is intended to simulate the driving conditions students find in their day-to-day duties, said Agent Simonton.

According to Agent Odgers, the course consists of multiple obstacles, each obstacle designed to simulate real world driving conditions including negotiating blind turns, emergency stops and dangerous traffic situations.

"Sometimes when you get home from work, you realize you were so lost in thought while driving that you can't even remember driving home. Any distractions, like talking on cell phones, also greatly impair you situational awareness while driving," said Agent Odgers. "This obstacle training can really help students understand the importance of maintaining awareness while driving. It also teaches them emergency driving techniques to implement when faced with making quick decisions because of not paying enough attention to the road."

In addition, the final part of the course includes instructors placing the students in a simulated attack. These scenarios include road blocks, kidnapping attempts, IED simulations and actually bumping the student driver's vehicles, attempting to send them out of control.

"The most critical aspect of the training we try to emphasize is to keep moving at all costs either by vehicle or on foot," Agent Odgers continued. "We try to show people that when faced with threatening situations, you may not have road to drive on, so drive on the grass or any other drivable terrain - don't stop. If the car stalls or is incapacitated for any reason, get out and run - just keep moving."

Most of the time, the training assets - the cars - are supplied by the requesting agency. However, AFOSI secured a few vehicles here to conduct training: one SUV and two sedans. According to Agent Odgers, the life of these training vehicles is pretty short though, and they require maintenance such as new brakes and tires nearly on a daily basis.

Plastic handguns and rifles as well as paintball guns are sometimes used to add to the experience of dealing with a threat during the driving portion. And the 18 special agents and security forces members who make up Det. 501 know how to bring realism to training scenarios. Their primary mission is to provide personal protection to senior U.S. and foreign dignitaries throughout the European Command area of responsibility.

Agent Simonton said each one of the instructors has had to deal with real world threats at one time or another - ranging from aggressive protestors to pickpockets. The instructors have also spent their fair share of time doing protective service missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Agent Simonton recalled one such incident in which an unruly group of protestors broke through the security cordon while in Munich. If not for the quick action of the team, not only would their principal (protectee) have been injured, but also a couple of U.S. senators attending the event

Though the nature of fast driving and tight turns creates safety concerns, the agents in charge are always in the vehicles supervising the driving and taking control of the vehicle when needed. Everyone in the vehicles, including the instructor, wear safety helmets.

"The driving is very controlled," said Agent Simonton. "There is always risk, but we minimize it."

One of the first groups training here were 12 Airmen from the 435th Vehicle Readiness Squadron Jan. 5. They are preparing for a deployment that will involve convoy driving in possibly dangerous conditions. They've already passed along to their leadership the desire to have all squadron members go through this training.

"The course was a huge hit with all the vehicle operators who attended," said Tech. Sgt. Walter Mack, NCOIC of dispatch support. "Being that our job downrange consists of basically convoy operations and security, and in most cases with driving dignitaries at home station and deployed locations, the training enlightened operators on the capabilities of the vehicles. The cadre who taught the course were professional and conducted the training as close to real world as possible."

This AFOSI detachment is the only unit of its kind in the Air Force, begun shortly after an unsuccessful terrorist attack on the USAFE commander in the late 1980s. The unit encompasses not only personnel from OSI, but also includes select members detailed from the 435th Security Forces Squadron. This joint concept provides them the flexibility they need to provide the best possible protective support with the minimum amount of manpower.

The instructors are required to attend a six-day intensive instructor course provided by International Training Incorporated in Richmond, Va. According to Agent Odgers, the training covers 4x4 and road driving to include high-speed driving, threat perception, crash avoidance, off-road recovery and evasive driving maneuvers. In addition, instructors are required to teach a class under supervision.

This training can be scheduled through AFOSI Det. 501 by calling 480-5506. Interested groups should remember that training is only provided to those who require anti-terrorism driving by virtue of their duties or position.