This Air Force Unit Has Been Fighting Alongside Army Rangers Since 9/11
The unit is the 17th Special Tactics Squadron. They have been in a continuous rotation with the 75th Ranger Regiment for the last 19 years.
The Air Force typically doesn't get a lot of credit for close-range ground combat missions, but there is one unit that has fought alongside Army Rangers almost every day since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Since its initial deployment in October 2001, elements of the 17th Special Tactics Squadron have deployed with units of the 75th Ranger Regiment for more than 6,900 days and counting. The headquarters and two operational detachments of the 17th have been in a continuous rotation of combat deployments in the 19 years since 9/11, according to an Air Force news release.
"We fight, bleed and laugh beside [the Rangers]. We win as a team or fail as a team," Air Force Staff Sgt. Ryan Duhon, a tactical air control party (TACP) airman who's responsible for directing close-air support with precision strike munitions on enemy targets when the elite Army raid force maneuvers on attack objectives, said in the news release.
"When we are downrange, there is no deviation or segregation between the Air Force and Army. We are one team fighting daily together to overcome adversaries," he added.
Aside from TACPs, the unit also provides special reconnaissance airmen, combat controllers, special tactics officers and combat mission support airmen to the Ranger Regiment.
The 17th is headquartered at Fort Benning, Georgia, alongside the 75th Regimental Headquarters and 3rd Ranger Battalion. Operational detachments are located at Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia, alongside the 1st Ranger Battalion, and at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, alongside the 2nd Ranger Battalion.