SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. -- The 4th Battlefield Coordination Detachment plays a vital role as the link between the Army and the Air Force at Shaw Air Force Base.
The 4th BCD essentially acts as translators. They are the liaison between the Army command and the Air Force command at Shaw Air Force Base. Sometimes the language Airmen use is much different than the language Soldiers use, and vice versa. The 4th BCD has to be bilingual in a way to make sure everyone is talking about the same things at the same time.
"Whether we're Air Force, Army, Navy; we're all on the same team, and that's team America," said Maj. Damond Davis, 4th BCD ground liaison officer. "I know that sounds cheesy, but it wasn't until I got this job (and) I started working with the Air Force that I realized how much we actually do together."
The 4th BCD is a subordinate unit to U.S. Army Central and at Shaw Air Force Base they work very closely with U.S. Air Forces Central Command and also have an Army ground liaison officer attached to the 20th Fighter Wing.
They have ground liaison officers embedded within other Air Force units as well that help integrate joint training plans for the Army and Air Force on a regular basis to include just up the road in North Carolina at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.
At Seymour Johnson the ground liaison officers with 4th BCD work with Soldiers at Fort Bragg to integrate air ground integration training between Seymour Johnson and Fort Bragg.
Requests from Army units on the ground for air support from the Air Force are always routed through the BCD. It's the primary means to prevent fratricide; the personnel type and the information type. Both, arguably, equally important.
"We will get requests for close air support -- in other words ground forces that want air power," said Lt. Col. Matthew Rowland, 4th BCD, deputy commander. "They want them to be overhead and ready to drop bombs on the enemy. A lot of times they have an operation that they organize and will publish that their headquarters is saying they want to have a desired effect; 'I need these bunkers suppressed, destroyed, taken out.' Those effects need to be translated and submitted to the Air Force such that Air Force prepares the right kind of plane with the right kind of bombs for those ground forces.
"Our job is to take those requests and make sure they are being written correctly and submitted properly," said Rowland. "If the Air Force has questions on it, rather than having to go all the way back to the lowest echelon on the Army side, we understand the operation, we understand the desired effect, and we can quickly answer the question for them to get the right support. That happens on a daily basis in Iraq for our unit."
The BCD enables the coordination of Army-Air Force mission command, fire support, integrated air and missile defense, intelligence sharing, airspace management, and airlift. Additional Space, Cyber and Electronic Warfare augmentation allow the BCD to further enable the designated Army Force commander across the complete spectrum of warfare.
"We organize our detachment to mirror the similar sections with the Air Force so that we can translate the ground commanders' intent on the ground operations side to those respective sections in the Air Force and vice versa," said Rowland. "All of those folks in blue -- the Air Force -- may not be up to speed in some of the terminology, intent or language that the Army might use when they describe their concept of operations, etc. Particularly when it comes to requesting close air support. We can translate, be an intermediary and make those things run smoothly."
There are a lot of moving parts in this machine. It's imperative that it is a well- oiled operation. It's not without its hurdles and challenges. One of 4th BCD's several noncommissioned officers, who currently sits in the unit's first sergeant seat and is an operations NCO, expressed that being aware of what's happening at all times is very important to mission success. Their detachment is spread out all over the area of operations, so having constant and detailed communication is a priority.
"Maintaining the situational awareness between the two -- because when we're not forward, we get reports and that's it," said Sgt. 1st Class Derick Fisher, operations NCO, about what is one regular challenge. "We're not physically there to understand the whole picture, or what forces on the ground call 'the ground truth.' I can read a report but the actual 'ground truth' may be something just a little bit different.
It's a very close relationship the 4th BCD has with their Air Force counterparts. It takes support and understanding to reach a common goal and achieve mission success. The 4th BCD is very much behind the scenes and under the hood, making it happen every single day.
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