HURLBURT FIELD, Florida- Air Force Special Tactics Airmen with the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron assessed, opened and controlled air traffic at Tyndall Air Force Base, Oct. 11.
Special Tactics Airmen have the ability to assess, open, and control major airfields to clandestine dirt strips in any environment, including those that have been impacted by a natural disaster.
The Special Tactics Airmen cleared and established a runway at 7 p.m., Oct. 11, and received the first aircraft at 7:06 p.m.
Special Tactics Airmen are in control of the airfield and are prepared to support airfield operations at Tyndall Air Force Base until further notice.
This will allow support to facilitate humanitarian assistance to Tyndall Air Force Base.
Tyndall Air Force Base received extensive damage in the wake of Hurricane Michael.
-1st Lt Jaclyn Pienkowski, USAF , 24th SOW PAO
Awesome work but the pic of the Airman on the dirt bike is throwing me off. Is he that big or is the bike that small? Is that an “issued” bike?
It’s an issue bike and used for runway clearance. They are small so that they can be dropped as door bundles.
It’s a pit bike.
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This is a cool story! Would be interesting to see some of the wreckage on the field before they cleared it. From another site it looked like an airframe got tossed around the property.
It was a static F-15 display.
the bike looks like a Grom or something around that type.
Beats walking.
Well done!
Amazing how comparatively little coverage this storm’s damage and impact is getting.
Kudos Air Force!
I am sure the local airmen could have opened it up without the super duper special ops superhero’s but whatever now they can pat each other on the back and hand out awards and ribbons
There’s always got to be one asshole in the comments
The base was evacuated of all but a few key personnel, so no, the normal crew can’t get in to start things back up, hence these guys coming in to start getting aircraft in to start cleanup and getting the place back up and running
That’s how it is in SOG, love us or hate us…
This is precisely what CCT was created for, running austere airfields. Thanks to the hurricane, Tyndall is now an austere field.
Your comment shows your ignorance. Unless the “local airmen” have UHF/VHF/SATCOM radios at their disposal, how are they supposed to “communicate” with the aircraft that are landing? Do the “local airmen” have training in removing debris and recovering SSE? Do the “local airmen” have food/water/first aid to sustain prolonged operations? Let us know about the “local airmen” and their capabilities….. better yet, let us know what YOU know.
In addition to the AFSOC guys from Hurlburt Field mentioned in the press release, Eglin AFB is also sending help. Both bases are 80ish miles west of Tyndall. So there are “regular guys” from the local military community doing some of the work required to get Tyndall back online. But this press release was not written by the 96TW PAO so they are not mentioned.
I highly doubt the guys at either Eglin or Tyndall are trained or equipped to set up austere airfields, that is an AFSOC mission. Good thing they are down the road (almost literally)…