ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE, Oklahoma -- When people think of military intelligence they usually imagine a dark windowless room illuminated only by light coming from computer monitors that flicker with encrypted messages only trained eyes understand.
Although the office is windowless, the 97th Operation Support Squadron Intelligence Flight will tell you that is a false depiction of them.
“People think we’re these nerds that wear glasses and stare at a computer all day while drinking Red Bull,” said Staff Sgt. Marcus Cripe, 97th OSS Intelligence Flight noncommissioned officer in charge. “We are nerds but not in that way.”
There are several disciplines of military intelligence and they differ from base to base, but Altus Air Force Base conducts all-source intelligence.
All-source intelligence is when data is pulled from all disciplines, creating a compressed picture of the threat for base leadership.
With this information the Intelligence Flight provides the wing commander a weekly intelligence briefing.
“On Tuesday mornings, we show up early and run through the wing's current intelligence brief that the commander receives every week,” said Tech Sgt. Patrick Dermady, 97th OSS Intelligence Flight chief. “We usually discuss a range of topics that support his priority intelligence requirements, we think would be interesting to him and would help him frame the mission.”
Doing so helps the commander understand the areas Airmen are deploying to and what challenges they could face down range.
“We have Airmen from Altus all over the world supporting a cluster of missions and our job is to keep the commander in tune with what those Airmen are doing and what they’re facing,” said Dermady.
The Intelligence Flight is also responsible for briefing anyone going out the door for a mission. They make sure Airmen are aware of current threats or situations they could face down range, additionally they perform isolated personnel reports to any aircrew that is supporting an operating mission.
Intelligence not only helps prepare aircrews but also helps train pilots.
Twice a year the Intelligence Flight supports initial qualification pilots going through the weapons school by training them for Joint Forcible Entry. JFE is when a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft flies into a hostile threat environment.
“We jump in and give them a threat briefing and then give them some pretend threats to have fun with,” said Cripe.
Intelligence overlays training threats on the pilot’s computer system, in real time, and the pilot must react appropriately.
“Doing JFE training prepares these pilots for the worst situations when flying in hostile areas and makes sure they know how to react if it ever really happens,” said Dermady.
With a heavy workload of keeping the wing commander informed on the happenings of the Airmen on and off base and ensuring aircrews are prepared for real world missions, the Altus Intelligence Flight continually strives to provide first-hand support to the home and deployed mission.