Special Tactics Airmen are a highly trained ground force in the U.S. Air Force. Their jobs require mental and physical toughness. Their motto of : Anyplace, Anytime, Anywhere" was demonstrated when executing multiple parachute jumps into enemy territory during Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
These Airmen participated in more than ten operations requiring either static line (when the parachute is deployed by the static line attached to the aircraft) or military freefall (when the individual deploys the parachute) jumps during these operations. Details of some of these jumps remain classified, and they involved combat controllers, pararescueman, tactical air control parties, and special operations weathermen, the majority of them enlisted.
During the invasion of Afghanistan, a static line jump codenamed Objective Rhino was conducted on the night of October 19, 2001. Nearly two hundred US Army Rangers, along with a handful of Special Tactics Airmen, exited an MC-130 at eight hundred feet to secure a landing strip southwest of Kandahar and establish a Forward Arming and Refueling Point, beginning Operation Enduring Freedom.
On March 28, 2003, members of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-West, which included Special Tactics Airmen, parachuted from a C-17 into Iraq during the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The mission, codenamed Objective Serpent, was to seize an Iraqi airfield. This was the last airfield to fall in the area, opening up the western third of Iraq to begin the war.
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