Special operations: Air Force struggles to expand ranks of unconventional combat specialists.

• Author: Grunden, Hunter
• Position: AIR FORCE

Air Force special tactics units expect to increase their ranks during the next several years, despite difficulties in recruiting and retaining seasoned operators. According to officials, only 62 percent of currently authorized jobs are filled.

These special tactics teams are part of the Air Force Special Operations Command, which is based in Hurlburt Field, Fla. Special tactics airmen include combat controllers, weathermen and pararescue operators.

Combat controllers move undetected into combat and other hostile environments, sometimes behind enemy lines, to establish helicopter landing zones and airfields.

Combat weathermen are meteorologists with advanced tactical skills that enable them to operate in hostile or denied territory. They gather and interpret weather data and provide intelligence, primarily while serving with other special operations forces.

Pararescuemen, or PJs, are trained and equipped to conduct both conventional and unconventional search and rescue operations of U.S. and allied personnel, often during combat. They can deploy by air, land or sea, if necessary, to find, identify, extract, treat and evacuate those in trouble.

Most pararescuemen--along with their combat rescue officers, HC-130 P/N transports and HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters--are in the process of being transferred from AFSOC to the Air Combat Command, which operates the Air Force's fighting aircraft.

AFSOC will retain some pararescuemen to help perform its own missions. Special tactics still has 106. But the transfer--when it is completed this month--will shrink AFSOC from about 19,000 personnel in 2005 to 13,000 at a time when it is adding new units.

In 2005, the command stood up the 3rd Special Operations Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. The 3rd SOS's mission is to fly the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle, AFSOC Commander, Lt. Gen. Michael W. Wooley, said at a recent seminar on Capitol Hill.

The Air Force announced in June a plan to transfer the 16th Special Operations Wing from Hurlburt to Cannon Air Force Base, N.M. The 16th will be able to train on the nearby 66,000-acre Melrose Air Force Range.

The service also intends to bring the 1st Special Operations Wing from retirement and station it at Hurlburt. The 1st is scheduled in November to receive the first operational CV-22 Osprey.

All of these changes will require additional personnel. Special operations forces, including those of the Air Force, are planned to increase by about 25 percent from a...