ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE -- When people think of military intelligence they usually imagine a dark windowless room illuminated only by light coming from computer monitors that flicker with encrypted messages that only trained eyes understand.
Although the office is windowless and the Airmen in it wish they got more sunlight the 97th Operation Support Squadron Intelligence Flight will tell you that is a false depiction of them.
“People think we’re these nerds that wear Coke-bottle glasses and stare at a computer all day while drinking Red Bull,” said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Marcus Cripe, 97th OSS Intelligence Flight noncommissioned officer in charge. “We are nerds but not in that way.”
There are several disciplines of military intelligence and they differ from base to base but at Altus Air Force Base all-source intelligence is conducted.
All-source intelligence is when data is pulled from all disciplines and is a compressed picture of the threat created for base leadership.
With this information the intelligence flight provides the wing commander a weekly intelligence briefing.
“On Tuesday mornings, we show up early and run through the wings current intelligence brief that the commander receives every week,” said U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Patrick Dermady, 97th OSS Intelligence Flight chief. “We usually discuss a range of topics that support his priority intelligence requirements and if we find a topic that we think would be interesting to him and would help him frame the mission.”
Doing so helps the commander understand the areas Airmen are deploying to and what challenges they could face down range.
“We have Airmen from Altus all over the world supporting a cluster of missions and our job is to keep the commander in tuned with what those Airmen are doing and what they’re facing,” said Dermady.
“On a typical Tuesday after briefing the commander we high five each other because we did a really good job,” said Dermady, “But after that we also have deployment briefings.”
After a small celebration, the mission must go on. Intelligence Flight is responsible for briefing anyone going out the door for a mission.
They make sure Airmen are aware of current threats or situations they could face down range, additionally they perform isolated personnel reports to any aircrew that is supporting an operating mission.
Intelligence not only helps prepare aircrews but also helps train pilots.
Twice a year the intelligence flight supports initial qualification pilots going through the weapons school by training them for joint forcible entry. JFE is when a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft flies into a range and drops in a hostel threat environment.
“We jump in and give them a threat briefing and then give them some pretend threats and have fun with it,” said Cripe.
Intelligence overlays threats on the pilot’s computer system in real time and the pilot must react appropriately to the threat.
“Doing JFE training prepares these pilots for the worst situations when flying in hostile areas and makes sure they know how to react if it ever really happens,” said Dermady.
With a heavy workload of keeping the wing commander informed on the happenings of the Airmen on and off base and ensuring aircrews are prepared for real world missions, the intelligence flight is continually striving to support the needs of Altus AFB.