24th Special Tactics Squadron

The 24th Special Tactics Squadron is one of the Special Tactics units of the United States Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). Garrisoned at Pope Field, North Carolina, it is the U.S. Air Force component of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). The unit's webpage describes it as "the Air Force's special operations ground force".

Mission
As the Air Force's Tier 1 unit, the 24th STS provides special operations airmen to the Joint Special Operations Command, including Pararescuemen, Combat Controllers, Special Reconnaissance, and Tactical Air Control Party personnel. 24th STS members are also trained to conduct classified and clandestine operations such as direct action, counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency, hostage rescue, and special reconnaissance. 24th STS members conduct some missions on their own, but are mostly known as enablers to the Army's 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (a.k.a. Delta Force) and the Navy's Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU (a.k.a. SEAL Team 6).

The Special Tactics Squadron is the oldest of the U.S. military's special forces groups, dating to World War II, before the U.S. military adopted a widespread special operations doctrine.

World War II
The squadron traces its lineage to the 24th Air Corps Interceptor Control Squadron, formed in October 1941 at Hamilton Field, California. It was the director unit for the 24th Pursuit Group, which was formed simultaneously at Clark Field, Philippines, as the headquarters for pursuit squadrons of the Philippine Department Air Force.

After completing training, the squadron sailed for the Philippines on the USAT President Garfield on 6 December 1941. After the following day's Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor and Clark Field, the President Garfield returned to port on 10 December and the squadron returned to Hamilton Field.

Although nominally assigned to the 24th Group from January through October 1942, the squadron served with air defense forces on the Pacific coast until it was disbanded on 31 March 1944, when the Army Air Forces converted its units in the United States from rigid table-of-organization units to more flexible base units. Its personnel and equipment were transferred to the 411th AAF Base Unit (Fighter Wing) at Berkeley, California.

Special operations
The 24th Special Tactics Squadron was called Brand X from 1977 to 1981. Then it was called Det 1 MACOS (Detachment One, Military Airlift Command Operations Staff). In 1983 it was renamed Det 4 NAFCOS (Detachment Four, Numbered Air Force Combat Operations Staff), in 1987 it became 1724th Combat Control Squadron, and then in the same year the 1724th Special Tactics Squadron. In 1992 it was finally renamed 24th Special Tactics Squadron.

In 1989, the 1724th Special Tactics Squadron participated in the United States invasion of Panama. In 1993, the 24th STS deployed 11 personnel including the unit commander, Lt. Col. Jim Oeser, as part of JSOC's Task Force Ranger during Operation Restore Hope. Several airmen were decorated for providing lifesaving medical care to wounded soldiers in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu: Pararescuemen Technical Sergeant Tim Wilkinson received the Air Force Cross and Master Sergeant Scott Fales the Silver Star. Combat Controller (CCT) SSgt. Jeffrey W. Bray received the Silver Star for coordinating helicopter attack runs throughout the night around their positions.

From 15 to 20 September 2000, the 24th STS and the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron took part in the annual Canadian military exercise, Search and Rescue Exercise (SAREX). This was the first time Special Tactics units took part in SAREX.

The squadron was heavily involved in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the unit was part of the JSOC groupings Task Force 121, Task Force 6-26 and Task Force 145. During Operation Rhino, two 24th STS operators were among the members of Task Force Sword that established a forward arming and refueling point (FARP) at Dalbandin, on the border with Pakistan. On November 13, an eight-man 24th STS element, supporting thirty-two Rangers from B Co., 3rd Ranger Battalion, executed a combat jump to seize a desert landing strip (LZ Bastogne). It was 24th STS's second combat jump of the war. At LZ Bastogne, 24th STS was responsible for preparing the airstrip to receive two MC-130 Combat Talons, each ferrying two of Delta Force's AH-6 Little Bird gunships, which would (once unloaded) proceed to use LZ Bastogne as a FARP for their operations. 24th STS was so frequently tasked with the mission of using a penetrometer to ensure the soil could support the weight of the Combat Talons carrying Little Birds, that they did more HALO jumping than any other unit in JSOC with at least 10 separate combat HALO jumps during the early days of the war.

In 2003, members of the unit made two combat jumps in the initial phases of the Iraq War alongside the 3rd Ranger Battalion. The first was on 24 March 2003 near the Syrian border in the Iraqi town of Al Qaim, where they secured a small desert landing strip to allow follow-on coalition forces into the area. The second combat jump was two days later near Haditha, Iraq, where they secured the Haditha Dam.

On 8 April 2003 Combat Controller Scott Sather, a member of the 24th STS, became the first airman killed in combat in Operation Iraqi Freedom, near Tikrit, Iraq. He was attached to a small team from the Regimental Reconnaissance Company. The RRD team and Sather were operating alongside Delta Force, under Lieutenant Colonel Pete Blaber, west of Baghdad. They were tasked with deceiving the Iraqi army into believing the main U.S. invasion was coming from the west in order to prevent Saddam Hussein from escaping into Syria. Sather Air Base was named after him.

The 24th STS was a part of JSOC's Task Force 145 which was a provisional grouping specifically charged with hunting down high-value al-Qaeda and Iraqi leaders including Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in June 2006.

The squadron lost three members – PJs John Brown and Daniel Zerbe and CCT Andrew Harvell – in 2011 when the Chinook in which they were flying was shot down in Afghanistan. To honor them, 18 members of AFSOC marched 800 miles from Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas to Hurlburt Field, Florida.

Notable members

 * PJ Tim Wilkinson received the Air Force Cross for his actions during the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu. Wilkinson was portrayed by Ty Burrell in the 2001 film Black Hawk Down which chronicled the events of the Battle of Mogadishu.
 * CCT John Chapman was posthumously awarded the Air Force Cross, later upgraded to the Medal of Honor. He is the first US Air Force member to receive the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam Era, for his actions in the Battle of Takur Ghar during the War in Afghanistan. In 2005 a U.S. Navy Buffalo Soldier-class container ship was renamed the TSgt John A. Chapman in Chapman's honor. However, it would take 16 years for him to be awarded one, due in large part to the Navy SEALs' attempts to block his Medal of Honor.
 * PJ Ramon Colon-Lopez, a former Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was a member of the 24th STS twice. From February 1999 – January 2005 Colon-Lopez was a Special Tactics Element Leader and April 2009 – April 2011 he was the Squadron's Senior Enlisted Advisor. In 2007 Colon-Lopez was one of the first six recipients of the newly created Air Force Combat Action Medal. He was awarded the AFCAM for a 2004 operation in Afghanistan during which he led an Advance Force Operations Team.

Lineage

 * 24th Fighter Control Squadron
 * Constituted as the 24th Air Corps Interceptor Control Squadron on 14 October 1941
 * Activated on 21 October 1941


 * Redesignated 24th Fighter Control Squadron on 15 May 1942
 * Disbanded on 31 March 1944


 * 24th Special Tactics Squadron
 * Designated as the 1724th Combat Control Squadron on 1 May 1987
 * Redesignated 1724th Special Tactics Squadron on 1 October 1987
 * Reconstituted and consolidated with the 1724th Special Tactics Squadron on 1 March 1992
 * Consolidated with the 24th Fighter Control Squadron on 1 March 1992
 * Redesignated 24th Special Tactics Squadron on 31 March 1992

Assignments

 * Fourth Air Force, 21 October 1941
 * 24th Pursuit Group, 15 January 1942 (apparently attached to Fourth Air Force until 7 July 1942, then to IV Fighter Command)
 * San Francisco Air Defense Wing (later San Francisco Fighter Wing), 15 October 1942 – 31 March 1944
 * Twenty-Third Air Force, 1 May 1987
 * 1720th Special Tactics Group (later 720th Special Tactics Group), 1 October 1987
 * 724th Special Tactics Group, 29 April 2011 – present

Stations

 * Hamilton Field, California, 21 October 1941 (aboard the USAT President Garfield, 6–10 December 1941
 * Berkeley, California, 7 October 1943 – 31 March 1944
 * Pope Air Force Base (later Pope Field), North Carolina, 1 May 1987 – present

Unit Awards

 * Other
 * Air Commando Association 2012 AFSOC Squadron of the Year

Commanders

 * July 2003 – July 2005, Lt. Col. Mark F. Stratton
 * June 2005 – June 2007, Lt. Col. Robert G. Armfield – Previous 24th STS assignments: Director of Operations (January 1998 – July 2002)
 * June 2009 – April 2011, Lt. Col. Matthew Wolfe Davidson – Previous 24th STS assignments: Flight Commander (August 1998 – January 2002), Deputy Commander (June 2008 – June 2009)

General and cited references

 * Attribution