A New Job Title, 30 April 1977

When you’re an independent scholar, like me, you quickly come to realize that you need to look outside of the typical libraries, archives, and online services. You must take extra care to evaluate the sources you find to ensure it meets both historical accuracy and relevance and is not some randomly created piece of bullshit. Sometimes, you come across a gem, as I did here! Here is a link to the documents: https://www.jointterminalattackcontroller.com/wordpress/?m=197704

Evolution in a profession is a natural occurrence, especially when that job is centered around technology and the ever-changing nature of warfare. On April 30, 1977, a new career field was created in the US Air Force. The Tactical Air Command and Control Specialist, commonly referred to as a ROMAD (for Radio Operator and Driver) at the time, was created out of necessity due to the fact that the radio maintenance Airmen who were assigned to the Air Liaison Officers were being passed up for promotion and the work that they were doing did not fit into the official description of the Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC) of 304x4.

For those not in the Air Force, a little explanation about what AFSCs are. According to AFI 36-2101, the Air Force Instruction on classifying military personnel, the purpose is as stated:

The military personnel classification system identifies duties and tasks for every position needed to accomplish the Air Force mission. The system is designed to identify qualifications and abilities necessary to accomplish these duties and tasks, as well as provide clear and visible career progression patterns. 

Basically, they are an alphanumeric identifier for a specific job. A modern example is current classification of Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) members: 1Z3x1. The first number is the career group, 1 for operations, the letter Z is the career field, Special Warfare, the second number is the career field subdivision, 3 for TACP. The x is a stand in for a number (1,3,5,7,9) that represents the skill level of the member in question, 3 for journeyman, etc. Some of the AFSCs had a further break down in the last number, but that is inconsequential to toady’s topic.

Basically, they are an alphanumeric identifier for a specific job. A modern example is current classification of Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) members: 1Z3x1. The first number is the career group, 1 for operations, the letter Z is the career field, Special Warfare, the second number is the career field subdivision, 3 for TACP. The x is a stand in for a number (1,3,5,7,9) that represents the skill level of the member in question, 3 for journeyman, etc. Some of the AFSCs had a further break down in the last number, but that is inconsequential to toady’s topic.

As you can see a letter from General Robert Dixon, the commander of the Tactical Air Command at the time, there were concerns that ROMADs were not actually fulfilling the job descriptions as listed for 304x4, Ground Radio Maintenance. Prior to the creation of a dedicated TACP career field, radio maintainers would be taken from maintenance units and assigned to an Air Liaison Officer (ALO), usually a fighter pilot who was preforming as a forward air controller for an Army ground unit. Once attached to the ALO, the ROMAD would not only maintain the radio, but drive the Jeep and set up the communications equipment required for the ALO to get bombs on target.

There were many concerns when it came to these men who had been operating in hostile environments in Vietnam, specifically that they were not being considered for promotion at the same rate as those who were preforming traditional 304x4 mission sets.  If you pay attention to the underlined section of the above memo, from deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel Colonel Pangle, a study was conducted that showed that while ROMADs still were able to show proficiency in the job skill through Skills Knowledge Tests (SKTs) yet these men had lower scores in other areas graded for promotion.

The solution to this problem was the creation of a new AFSC. The recommendation in the documents was that ROMADs be place in the 27xxx Command and Control career “ladder”, which today would be called a career field. By doing so, the leaders of different echelons of Tactical Air Command believed that this would create ROMADs as an “identifiable Resource within the Tactical Air Control System”.

I think that this is an important point in Air Force history, because we can look back on the process that was utilized to create what eventually became the TACP career field and compare and contrast what is happening within the Special Warfare community today. TACPs have become an integral part of any conflict that the United States participates in, with operators supporting units from armored divisions to Tier 1 units. With the recent creation of the AFSC 1Z4x1, Special Reconnaissance, I suspect that a very similar process was created. (For more information specifically on SR, check out the Ones Ready SR interview)

This step was not the end of the evolution of the TACP career field, nor was it really the beginning. Historians try and place events and people within the context of the time as well as within the context of what is happening today. As the Air Force Special Warfare community continues to evolve, its important to look back at our past to lean and become better by using the shoulder of those who came before.

Hooyah, Never Quit!

Morgan