Goodfellow EST: More Ready, More Lethal

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Randall Moose
  • 17th Training Wing Public Affairs

 

Members from the 17th Security Forces Squadron Emergency Services Team completed their Basic SWAT certification May 7 to May 11. EST is a team of highly motivated, physically fit, well trained Defenders who function as a designated high threat response group, leveraging a more ready and more lethal option during unique incident scenarios. While all EST members undergo additional physical fitness screening and training indoctrination, the Basic SWAT certification was the culminating requirement for establishing the first ever EST at Goodfellow Air Force Base.

They received training from The Shooting Institute, a company made up of former Navy SEALS, special operations and law enforcement individuals providing expert level firearms and tactical training.

“It goes more in depth than our initial training..."

“We were asked to come and teach a basic SWAT course,” said TSI Chief of Business Operations, Stan Wiggins. “We want to teach these guys to actively find and engage a threat. The primary threats we have been training for are, active shooter, barricaded assailant or a hostage situation where you have one assailant and one innocent.”

Goodfellow Security Forces learned the basics of approach, breaching, deliberate vs. dynamic movement, threat identification and how to use pistols and rifles in CQC environments.

“I think this training is awesome,” said Airman Josten Lacey, 17th Security Forces Squadron defender. “It goes more in depth than our initial training and it is very hands-on.”

The training would start in a classroom, then move to a firing range at Goodfellow or the Eldorado Air Force Station. There, the students would implement their training with complex drills and simulation rounds.

“You can argue tactics all day,” said TSI Chief Executive Officer, Jared Hudson. “The truth comes out when you are in a gunfight, but we can’t go out and get in gunfights every day. So the way we measure the efficiency of our tactics is through the shooting and how long it takes to make that shot.”

Multiple agencies worked to make this training possible.

“This ended up being a happy coincidence that The Shooting Institute got the contract we put out for a certified SWAT course” said Capt. Constantine Bucuvalas, 17th SFS operations officer. “The 17th Training Wing, the 17th Training Group and the 17th Mission Support Group have been really supportive.”

“This has been some of the best instruction I have received over my career” said Bucuvalas.