Airmen make history with air assault school graduation

By Staff Sgt. Andrew Park, 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs / Published April 26, 2017

PHOTO DETAILS / DOWNLOAD HI-RES 1 of 3

Senior Airman Daniel Giansanti, left, and Senior Airman Domenic Martino, both 386th Air Expeditionary Wing civil engineering squadron explosive ordnance disposal unit technicians, pose for a photo at U.S. Army Air Assault School at Camp Buehring, Kuwait on April 13, 2017. The graduation of the two Airmen from the 386th also serves as an unprecedented event, as this is the first time in history that Airmen have graduated from this particular course. (Courtesy photo)

PHOTO DETAILS / DOWNLOAD HI-RES 2 of 3

Senior Airman Domenic Martino, a 386th Air Expeditionary Wing civil engineering squadron explosive ordnance disposal technician, shows the U.S. Army Air Assault School pin he received after graduating from the course. This course was only recently offered in the area of responsibility and Martino was one of the first Airmen to graduate from the course. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Andrew Park)

PHOTO DETAILS / DOWNLOAD HI-RES 3 of 3

A student repels from a UH-60 Blackhawk during training at the U.S. Army Air Assault School at Camp Buehring, Kuwait on April 13, 2017. The 10-day course teaches techniques for insertion, pathfinder and evacuation operations involving helicopters. (Courtesy photo)

SOUTHWEST ASIA --

Two Airmen from the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing civil engineering squadron explosive ordnance disposal unit recently graduated from the U.S. Army Air Assault School held at Camp Buehring, Kuwait.

The graduation of the two Airmen from the air assault school also serves as an unprecedented event, as this is the first time in history that Airmen have graduated from this particular course while on a contingency operation deployment.

Senior Airman Domenic Martino and Senior Airman Daniel Giansanti, both technicians with the 386th CES EOD, attended the 10-day course where they learned techniques for troop insertion, landing zone set up and evacuation operations involving helicopters. These types of operations are typically used when operating behind enemy lines where vehicles and people must be moved quickly to ensure their safety, explained Martino, who is deployed from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.

“It was basically all attention to detail. That’s what they taught you throughout the course,” said Martino. “I caught up on it pretty quickly because throughout my EOD school it was all about attention to detail.”

The U.S. Army recently began offering the course to U.S. Army Central Command area of responsibility servicemembers and started accepting its first students at the beginning of April.

Over the duration of the course, Martino and Giansanti learned techniques such as combat assault, slingload operations, where they set up helicopters carry loads such as vehicles, and rappelling operations.

“There are so many fine details you have to look at in each inspection,” Martino explained. “It could be a single link count in the chains, and if you’re one off, then that’s it. It’s a discrepancy or deficiency.”

The 386th CES decided to send the two Airmen based on their demonstrated proficiency and professionalism in their work here at the 386th EOD, said Master Sgt. Travis Hughes, a 386th CES EOD flight chief deployed from Seymour Johnson.

Attending this course will help the Airmen and their teams better perform in a variety of austere locations required to complete the wing’s mission.

“Part of our mission set is to support Army teams and what we’ve found over the last few years is that we have to prepare our guys for these types of mission sets,” said Hughes.

“We have to make sure our guys can safely respond to incidents that require an air insert,” Hughes continued. “Getting them to this course allows them to get that foundation so that when we have to respond via air insert, they can work safely around the aircraft.”

On a more personal level, Martino said he felt that graduating from this challenging course was yet another major milestone he reached in his military career. And it is one he is particularly proud of.

If you wish to comment, use the text box below. AF reserves the right to modify this policy at any time.

This is a moderated forum. That means all comments will be reviewed before posting. In addition, we expect that participants will treat each other, as well as our agency and our employees, with respect. We will not post comments that contain abusive or vulgar language, spam, hate speech, personal attacks, violate EEO policy, are offensive to other or similar content. We will not post comments that are spam, are clearly "off topic", promote services or products, infringe copyright protected material, or contain any links that don't contribute to the discussion. Comments that make unsupported accusations will also not be posted. The AF and the AF alone will make a determination as to which comments will be posted. Any references to commercial entities, products, services, or other non-governmental organizations or individuals that remain on the site are provided solely for the information of individuals using this page. These references are not intended to reflect the opinion of the AF, DoD, the United States, or its officers or employees concerning the significance, priority, or importance to be given the referenced entity, product, service, or organization. Such references are not an official or personal endorsement of any product, person, or service, and may not be quoted or reproduced for the purpose of stating or implying AF endorsement or approval of any product, person, or service.

Any comments that report criminal activity including: suicidal behaviour or sexual assault will be reported to appropriate authorities including OSI. This forum is not:

This forum is not to be used to report criminal activity. If you have information for law enforcement, please contact OSI or your local police agency.
Do not submit unsolicited proposals, or other business ideas or inquiries to this forum. This site is not to be used for contracting or commercial business.
This forum may not be used for the submission of any claim, demand, informal or formal complaint, or any other form of legal and/or administrative notice or process, or for the exhaustion of any legal and/or administrative remedy.

AF does not guarantee or warrant that any information posted by individuals on this forum is correct, and disclaims any liability for any loss or damage resulting from reliance on any such information. AF may not be able to verify, does not warrant or guarantee, and assumes no liability for anything posted on this website by any other person. AF does not endorse, support or otherwise promote any private or commercial entity or the information, products or services contained on those websites that may be reached through links on our website.

Members of the media are asked to send questions to the public affairs through their normal channels and to refrain from submitting questions here as comments. Reporter questions will not be posted. We recognize that the Web is a 24/7 medium, and your comments are welcome at any time. However, given the need to manage federal resources, moderating and posting of comments will occur during regular business hours Monday through Friday. Comments submitted after hours or on weekends will be read and posted as early as possible; in most cases, this means the next business day.

For the benefit of robust discussion, we ask that comments remain "on-topic." This means that comments will be posted only as it relates to the topic that is being discussed within the blog post. The views expressed on the site by non-federal commentators do not necessarily reflect the official views of the AF or the Federal Government.

To protect your own privacy and the privacy of others, please do not include personally identifiable information, such as name, Social Security number, DoD ID number, OSI Case number, phone numbers or email addresses in the body of your comment. If you do voluntarily include personally identifiable information in your comment, such as your name, that comment may or may not be posted on the page. If your comment is posted, your name will not be redacted or removed. In no circumstances will comments be posted that contain Social Security numbers, DoD ID numbers, OSI case numbers, addresses, email address or phone numbers. The default for the posting of comments is "anonymous", but if you opt not to, any information, including your login name, may be displayed on our site.

Thank you for taking the time to read this comment policy. We encourage your participation in our discussion and look forward to an active exchange of ideas.