March honors fallen special tactics Airmen

Published Oct. 26, 2011
By Staff Sgt. Kimberly Rae Moore
81st Training Wing Public Affairs

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- The blue lights of the police escort shine in the distance signaling to the Airmen bearing their 50-pound ruck sacks that it's almost time to join their teammates. As the lights grow brighter, the critical training they're now receiving at Keesler Air Force Base comes into clearer focus.

Nearly 40 of the 334th Training Squadron's combat control instructors and trainees joined their fellow special tactics team members Oct. 24 for a segment of the 812-mile Tim Davis Memorial March.

This march first took place in 2009 to honor Staff Sgt. Tim Davis and the special tactics Airmen who died in combat before him, explained Maj. Kristi Beckman, Air Force Special Operations Command Public Affairs. It's not an annual event, but the team plans to march every year that a special tactics Airman is lost in combat and. Unfortunately, this is the third march in three years.

The Air Force's special tactics teams consist of Airmen from three career fields: combat controllers, pararescuemen and Special Operations Weathermen. Each of these special operations career fields requires specialized, intensive training. Combat Controller students receive 15.5 weeks of Air Traffic Control training here.

This memorial march began at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, Oct. 16 and ended at the Special Tactics Training Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Fla., Oct. 26.

Beckman explained that the significance of the start and end point of this march is that Lackland is where special tactics Airmen begin their technical training and Hurlburt Field is both where their training is completed and where Air Force Special Operations Command is located.

To accomplish this march, six three-man teams take turns covering about 90 miles a day, each carrying a baton on which a fallen special tactics Airman's name is engraved to represent those who can no longer march.

"I went through (technical training) with Capt. Derek Argel," recalled Tech. Sgt. Adam Malson, 334th TRS combat control Instructor, "and I was stationed at Hurlburt Field with Staff Sgt. Casey Crate, 1st Lt. Jeremy Fresques, Senior Airman Adam Servais and Staff Sgt. Tim Davis."

These names are all now engraved on batons.

While Malson personally knew some of the men being memorialized, he shared why he felt it's so important for the students to participate in this march as well.

"We only participated in a few miles, but was very important for the trainees to see that we still remember our friends and brothers," Malson said. "It's important to show the young men that they are training to join a group of very special individuals who will do their best to take care of each other."

For more information, and a detailed itinerary of the march, visit the AFSOC Facebook page at www.facebook.com/afsocofficial and click on the Memorial Ruck March tab.