Waller takes home the 'bronze'

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Sherri Bohannon
  • 917th Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AFB, La. --  Sergeant Waller hit the ground running. 

Everything and everyone is fair game in an insurgent's mind. He knew that from his two previous tours to Iraq and Afghanistan. Safety would be paramount in the survival of him and his team 

Six months later, Sergeant Waller left Western Iraq, having been awarded a Bronze Star for his efforts. 

Sergeant Waller (Kyle) led a team of five "CSI professionals," a weapons investigation team assigned to Camp Ar Ramadhi, Iraq, whose sole mission was to identify bombers, bomber signatures and piece together information to build bombers' profiles, a key part of counter-terrorism efforts in Iraq today. By design, the WIT consisted of someone from the Office of Special Investigations, two Intelligence experts, an explosive ordnance disposal technician, and one Army heavy weapons gunner. 

The WIT mission, an Army mission since 2004, was handed over to the Air Force in 2006 due to wartime manning constraints. Sergeant Waller and his team (one of 15 WIT teams) was the first evolution of this new concept. 

Safety was paramount to mission success, Sergeant Waller said. Based on information he received prior to getting in country, he saw flaws in the way the investigative teams were doing business in the west, things that could ultimately cost them their lives. 

Under the old construct, the WIT team rode in a convoy of five to each scene, a convoy which consisted of three security vehicles, one in front, in back and in the middle, one explosive ordnance disposal vehicle, a joint emergency rapid response vehicle commonly referred to as a JERRV aka "cougar," and one high mobility multi-wheel vehicle for a five-man WIT team. 

"Within the Al Anbar Province, more often than not, when a vehicle suffered a direct strike from an IED, the damage was catastrophic in nature," Sergeant Waller said. "Not only resulting in total vehicle disablement, but also the loss of human life. Knowing this first hand, I knew I had to change the way we do business, day one, boots on the ground."
Sergeant Waller's pitch was to cut the WIT HMMWV out of the mix all together and have one WIT team member (versus five) accompany the four-man EOD team in their "cougar." 

"Operating in a (separate) HMMWV was excessive and unnecessary," Sergeant Waller said. "Having the WIT separated from the EOD members means you're not able to see their (EOD) actions. You're not going to have a true birds-eye view of what is going on, or of what has occurred." This, he said, ultimately hampers the investigation, because it lengthens the time required to complete the WIT processes, when time is of the essence. 

This idea is what turned the WIT leadership onto a new way of thinking, he said.
"It's an IED war there, plain and simple," Sergeant Waller said. "You may get seven to nine calls in a 24-hour period. How do you maintain and endure 24-7 operations if you have to take your whole (WIT) team on every single WIT or EOD call?" 

"If you take only one WIT person on a mission, you have four WIT personnel left for other simultaneous EOD missions," he said. "You have your recoup factor. Plus, you're not risking five lives every time you go outside the wire." 

This seemingly win-win proposal didn't come without its challenges, though. It meant taking four individuals, some from Air Force Specialty Codes who were primarily administrative in their day-to-day job duties, and teaching them how to be effective combat tacticians and investigators. 

"You have to take those individuals and give them a whole new skills set, teach them weapons safety, situational awareness to the "ninth degree," streamlined investigative processes, and how to deal with the psychological realm of receiving small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenade attacks, and indirect artillery fire with a strong enough "mental toughness" to endure that day in and day out for six months," Sergeant Waller said. 

"It's a heck of a leadership challenge, but I feel I was on the mark with my ORM assessment." 

Every time Sergeant Waller's team members went on a mission, he left one idea in their minds, "Nothing is secure; everything is suspect."
"We're tasked with collecting biometric and forensic evidence, taking photographs, and interviewing people on scene. But once that first bullet sounds off and comes inbound to your location times 30 or 40, to put it mildly, you find yourself on the deck yelling direction and distance, you can't hear, and all the while you're trying to find muzzle flashes to return fire. Your regular duties are over until you regain tactical control of the situation," he said.
"The key is being ready," Sergeant Waller said. "You can never anticipate it. When you least expect it is when it happens each and every time." 

At the time of mission completion, Sergeant Waller's team had managed to complete 32 documented criminal cases with individuals incarcerated awaiting trial by the Iraqi court system, and over 90 enemy insurgents identified with confirmed forensic evidence through the use of biometrics. By the time he left country, eight of the 15 WIT teams were operating in the same manner as his team. 

"Day one on the ground is not your ideal time to go in and change business," Sergeant Waller said. "But I knew the possible results if I didn't. I know I made the right sale."