Stinger missiles shoot ‘outlaw’ planes out of sky

Sgt. Marcie C. Wright

5th Armored Brigade Public Affairs

ORO GRANDE, N.M. – “Got it!” said Sgt. Timothy C.R. Creasman, an Avenger crew member and noncommissioned officer in charge of Avenger Team 11, as he watched a shooter team in his unit shoot a plane out of the sky.

Several “outlaw” planes were shot out of the sky here Feb. 26 during the Stinger live-fire exercise conducted by 5th Armored Brigade’s 1st Training Support Battalion, 362nd Regiment, as they trained the 2nd Bn., 263rd Air Defense Artillery, of the South Carolina Army National Guard.

The S.C. National Guard Soldiers arrived at Fort Bliss for training in late January and departed for the National Capital Region earlier this month. National Guard units from three states rotate this mission and are validated here before leaving to perform this essential task. 

These units have the unique mission of protecting the homeland by using air defense radar technology to detect threats, and when necessary, using heavy artillery to shoot dangerous aircraft out of the sky.

The Avenger teams fired a total of 75 missiles, 50 during the day and 25 at night. Daytime firing was split between the Avenger system and Man-Pads system. The Avenger system is when missiles are fired from a truck, and the man-pads system is shot from the shoulder.

Sgt. Mark B. Master, radar team NCOIC for 2nd Bn., 263rd ADA, explained why he chose to transfer into this unit.

“It feels very good to have a unique mission,” he said. “It’s not your standard. … We are actually protecting everybody in the United States, pretty much.”

The units get simulated training as often as possible, but the Stinger live-fire is only done during their training at McGregor Range and Oro Grande.

Creasman explained the relevance of the training he received.

“It gets us familiar with our system enough to where we can operate to a military standard.”

“It’s real-life training,” said Master. “We have to bring the system up and bring the system down, so we get practice on that. And then we actually have live missions where aircraft fly over, we track it, send it to higher and then they determine from there.”

Master added that the radar system tracks and classifies the aircraft, the message gets sent to the higher command and the command to execute travels back down the chain to the Avenger crew members. All of this happens within seconds.

Capt. Scott N. Rost, an observer controller/trainer with Task Force Renegade, said he feels that live-fire training is of the utmost importance. 

“The importance of the live-fire exercise is not only familiarity, but confidence in the system – they can’t replace that,” said Rost. “There is nothing that can compare to the real deal. The bottom line. You want to fire the real thing so you know that it works.”

Complementing familiarity and confidence is the enjoyment these Soldiers get from performing their duties and seeing the successful contact between the missile and the aircraft, causing earsplitting explosions in the sky.

“It’s awesome,” said Creasman. “It’s exciting for that missile to fire over your head and you follow the smoke to the aircraft and see it blow up. It’s a very big adrenaline rush.” 

“It’s really cool for me because I am a radar guy, but getting to see them shoot the missiles is very unique,” said Master. “Most of the time we don’t get to see it. … It’s a pretty exciting time.”

The anticipated excitement brought a few distinguished guests to watch training on the range. Maj. Gen. Charles A. Anderson, First Army Division West commander; Lt. Gen. Guy Swann III, U.S. Fifth Army commander and Northern Command commander; and Maj. Gen. Herbert Newton, commanding general of the 263rd Army Air Missile Defense Command and assistant adjutant general, South Carolina National Guard, viewed the live fire.

“It’s pretty neat,”  Master said of the leaders visiting. “I like it because they actually see what we do and we can kind of boast. … It’s very rewarding to see them come out and [for us to] be able to show off.”

“Actually that’s a very important part of it because it shows us that the senior leadership is getting involved,” Rost added.”  … “It gives us visibility.”

Rost said he is proud to have the responsibility of training Soldiers in air defense because it leads to protection of the homeland.

“It’s very exciting,” said Rost. “I mean, the bottom line: We’re doing something here to protect our homeland and this is the most important mission for homeland defense right now. It doesn’t get any bigger than this.”