Skip to main content (Press Enter).
 News
    
        Photos

    Week in Photos

    Air Force TV

    Commentaries

    Features

    Art

    About Us
    
        Air Force Senior Leaders
    
        SECAF

    CSAF

    CMSAF

    Biographies

    Fact Sheets

    SECAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library
    
        CSAF Leadership Library 2022

    CSAF Leadership Library 2021

    CSAF Reading List Pre-2020 Archive
    
        2018 CSAF Reading List

    2017 CSAF Reading List

    2016 CSAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library 2023

    CMSAF Leadership Library

    50 Years of the CMSAF

    Adjunct Professors

    Air Force Strategic Documents

    Arctic Strategy

    Empowered Airmen

    State Licensure Portability

    Careers

    AF Federal Advisory Committees

    AF 75th Anniversary

    Policy Updates

    AF Content Management

    Contact Us

    AF Sites
    
        Site RegistrationU.S. Air Force LogoAir Force

        Policy UpdatesNewsroomReoptimizationBIOGRAPHIESAF Senior Leaders      U.S. Air Force Special Tactics Airmen with the 24th Special Operations Wing perform avalanche training at Moran, Wyoming, Dec. 13, 2016. Special Operations Weather Team Airmen have been an integral piece of Special Tactics with unique training to conduct multi-domain reconnaissance and surveillance across the spectrum of conflict and crisis. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Sandra Welch)161213-F-HF922-017
                        
                        
                        Special tactics Airmen with the 24th Special Operations Wing perform avalanche training in Moran, Wyo., Dec. 13, 2016. Special Operations Weather Team Airmen have been an integral piece of special tactics with unique training to conduct multi-domain reconnaissance and surveillance across the spectrum of conflict and crisis. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Sandra Welch)
                
                Photo Details /
                        Download Hi-Res

Air Force transitions enlisted specialty, grows special tactics capabilitiesPublished May 15, 2019
                    
                    By Senior Airman Rachel Yates
                    
                    
                    24th Special Operations Wing Public Affairs
            **HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. (AFNS) --**Enlisted Airmen have been analyzing weather since the very beginning of American military flight in 1917. Decades of hard-earned experience led to Special Operations Weather Team Airmen being designated with their own Air Force specialty code in 2008.
By combining the core skills of special operations forces with their meteorology skills, SOWTs have been a critical asset to the war on terror. Alongside special tactics teammates from forward deployed locations, SOWTs would gather, assess and interpret environmental to forecast weather impacts to operations. In a location like Afghanistan, this was vital to successful air-ground operations.
However, in an era of great power competition, the need to look critically at the entire Air Force Special Operations Command formation drove Headquarters Air Force and AFSOC to broaden the skillset of special tactics teams. On April 30, SOWT became special reconnaissance, expanding the capacity and lethality of Air Force special tactics.
“Air Commandos need to operate effectively across the spectrum of conflict, from the low end to the high end and everywhere in between,” said Lt. Gen. Brad Webb, AFSOC commander. “It’s what the nation expects from us and this transition demonstrates our commitment to the National Defense Strategy.”
SOWT Airmen have been an integral piece of Special Tactics with unique training to conduct multi-domain reconnaissance and surveillance across the spectrum of conflict and crisis. As special reconnaissance, or SR, they will continue to maintain their application of lethal and non-lethal air-to-ground integration of airpower.
“The evolution of Air Force Special Tactics on today’s battlefield has called for SOWT to transition their singular focus to a more holistic approach-- the highly demanded special reconnaissance,” said Chief Master Sgt. Jeff Guilmain, 24th Special Operations Wing command chief.
SR Airmen add a new capability to Special Tactics teams to prepare the environment and aid in air, space, cyberspace and information superiority for the successful execution of joint force objectives.
“(Special reconnaissance) will truncate (special operations) weather training with a shift in focus from long-term regional forecasting to short-term, small-scale, team-specific environmental reconnaissance with an emphasis on special recon as a whole.” said Master Sgt. Thomas Howser, special reconnaissance career assistant functional manager.
The training pipeline for SR won’t be much different from that of SOWT.
Trainees will still undergo:
Special Warfare Preparatory Course
Assessment and Selection
Initial Skills Course
Army Airborne School
Air Force Basic Survival School
Air Force Water Survival School
Air Force Underwater Egress Training
Special Operations Weather Course
Advanced Skills Training
Special Tactics Training
Combat dive and military free-fall qualifications, as well as recon-specific training, are being added to the pipeline.
Existing SOWTs will attend a special reconnaissance transition course that will sign off SR-specific training.
“This move will modernize the force and bridge a gap across all domains,” Howser said. “It will allow joint-interoperability across all the services with regard to special reconnaissance.”
The special reconnaissance designation is not only creating Air Force history but honoring a giant in special operations weather history.
“SR” is the operator-initials of Lt. Col. William Schroeder, a career special operations weather officer and former commander of the 342nd Training Squadron, Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas.
Schroeder was fatally wounded during a struggle with a gunman after he instinctively placed himself between the armed individual and the squadron’s first sergeant, saving the lives of many, on April 8, 2016.
The new designation is just one way future SR Airmen will remember their roots and the true meaning of service before self.FS 



U.S. Army Airborne School 



Basic Survival School 



Water Survival School 



Underwater Egress Training 



Special Operations Weather Course 



Advanced Skills Training 



Special Tactics Training 



Combat dive 



military free-fall 



qualifications 



special operations weather team 



SOWT 



Airmen 



Air Force Specialty Code 



meteorology 



Afghanistan 



24th Special Operations Wing Featured News
        Senior Leader Priorities
                SecAF, CSAF, CMSAF begin Indo-Pacific trip focused on ACE
                    
                    DAF leaders talk budget, reoptimizing the force
                    
                    DAF leaders speak at National Character and Leadership Symposium
                    
                    DAF members recognized during BEYA STEM awards
                    
                    DAF senior enlisted advisors discuss Airmen, Guardians in the fightInnovation
                F-16s arrive to be modified for autonomous testing
                    
                    AFWERX director discusses role of tech startups, quick innovation in Great Power Competition
                    
                    DAF delivers lethality at the speed of data during Project Convergence Capstone 4
                    
                    DAF welcomes industry partners to HQ development program
                    
                    DAF announces Spark Tank 2024 finalistsMAJCOM News
                Safety enterprise announces new mission, vision, goals in 2024 strategic plan
                    
                    Air Combat Command welcomes new commander
                    
                    USAFE-AFAFRICA commander discusses Integrated Air, Missile Defense during Munich Security Conference
                    
                    Flosi to AFMC family: Embrace change, make every day count
                    
                    AMC rises to increasing global tension
 Quick Links
AccessibilityContact UsEqual OpportunityFOIA | Privacy | Section 508Information QualityInspector GeneralJAG Court-Martial DocketLink DisclaimerNo FEAR ActOpen GovernmentOSI Tip LinePlain LanguageQuestionsResilienceRSSSite MapVeterans Crisis LineCareers
Join the Air ForceAir Force BenefitsAir Force CareersAir Force ReserveAir National GuardCivilian ServiceConnect
            Get Social with Us
            
            Official United States Air Force Website
    Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil