Combat Control School- My experience of one of the toughest schools in the military

Combat Control School ( CCS)

Combat Control School is an experience I'll never forget.  The memories of one of the toughest schools in the military is still burned into my mind.  

There isn't a lot of information available about this course, so hopefully I can inform a little of what it's really like.  In the following blog article I'm going to share about my first attempt at CCS.  It was a June class held at Pope AFB, just outside of Fayetteville, N.C.  The thick summer heat made this course extra difficult.  My second time through in September seemed a little easier.  Although I didn't make it all the way through on my first attempt, I'm gonna share that experience.

Combat Control Selection

Back in 2006, Combat Control School, ( CCS),  was the first major test, the first real cut on the journey to obtain the scarlet beret.  The school was deep into the pipeline, about a year, so the time leading up to it is really just preparation for this brutal course.  

Compare this to most special operations training, CCT was a bit different in the sense that the pipeline is designed to build a candidate up before they are put through an intense gut check.

Most training styles weed candidates out in the beginning, so the focus can be put on spending the time, resources, and money training the few that make it.

The Combat Control ( CCT) community ( around 2005) were critically manned, and not many guys were getting through the brutal pipeline.  The decision was made to stop the pre dive selection with the PJs.  Instead, they wanted to push the pre dive until after CCS.  Instead of CCS being a school of just learning the basics of being a CCT, it became the selection course for the pipeline.  After graduating, candidates moved on to pre dive and dive school as a combat controller, and pre dive was just an instruction course, not a selection.

The gut check

Once CCS began, the atmosphere of my training life was immediately changed.  It went from saying " never quit " to proving it.  The first part of the course is called Introduction to field training, or better known in the CCT training culture, hell week.  It's an entire week five days and nights of non stop training, wearing 100 pounds of gear most of the time.  There's also this youtube video that explains the events during the week: 

I did a complete blog article on this brutal week, and tried to explain how difficult this week was.  It is unbelievably hard and forced me to dig deeper than I ever had in my life, but unfortunately, it was not the hardest part of the school.

How the course is set up

When we arrived at CCS, it already felt more intense.  The schoolhouse was bigger, we got our own locker room, and we were issued a TON of gear.  A giant rucksack with everything you could need is provided,as we placed our number with green tape on EVERYTHING. 

In the giant ruck sack included things such as: Sleeping bag, extra BDUs and boots, mosquito net, gas mask ( attached to your hip), maps in water proof case, big radio and antennas, mock M4 riflle, knife ( on your belt), and so on.  There were also two large canteens attached to the ruck sack, which were full of water at all times.  The final weight of the rucksack weighed in at about 60 pounds.

Additionally, you are issued a vest.  The vest issued, like the rucksack, was old and uncomfortable ( we'd get all the latest and best gear if we graduated CCS) ; it contained items such as: compass, magazines for the M4 and M9, pocket knife, chap stick,  two smaller canteens , and a signaling mirror.  The final weight of the vest was 30 pounds.

Once we started the course, which began with the Introduction to field training ( hell week) we wore the rucksack and vest during most of the activities, but sometimes we only wore the vest.

We also carried a fake M4 and M9 during hell week, which added to the weight. Later on we switched to the real weapons.  

Once we arrived to Pope AFB, which was inside of Fort Bragg near Fayetteville N.C. , we were assigned to the barracks.  The barracks were about a quarter mile from the school house.  The combat control school house was a large building that had instructor offices, a classroom, and a large locker room to store our gear in between different phases. 

Combat Control School was the place where trainees become an entry level combat controller.  Upon graduating, trainees are awarded the scarlet beret, and earn the title of combat controller.... but it's far from over.  Like the Navy SEALs graduating BUD/s, combat controllers are just beginning their career if they graduate Combat Control School.  

After CCS, was advanced skills training, which contained pre scuba, combat dive school, HALO, and other phases of missions and learning.  But, that's another, or more blog articles.  Let's take a closer look at Combat Control School.

If you've ever seen books or documentaries about BUD/s third phase, then you can picture CCS.  We wore the jungle type BDUs,  we had the same looking vests and equipment, we became very familar with weapons, and became outdoorsmen. The pace also was fast, often the fire hose method of learning one skill quickly and then moving on to the next skill. 

After hell week, we started into the classroom phase of communications.  The schedule would be the same for the same for the remainder of the course with one week of classroom training  learning a new skill, and then out in the field at Fort Bragg applying what we learned.  

The Pit

The classroom phases were easier than being out in the field with all our gear on, but it wasn't a walk in the park.  We did sit in a classroom most of the day, and we slept in the barracks at night, but in the morning we did physical training in the pit area.  We often did this with our PT gear, shorts and a T- shirt, but I remember this being some of the worst times of the school. 

The pit was an area of chopped up tires that we did all sorts of physical training ( massive repetitions of push ups, sit ups, flutter kicks, iron Mikes, etc. ) Sometimes we'd wear our BDUs, and this training often resulted in me feeling nauseous and exhausted.  There were also pull up and dip bars just outside the pit area where we often hung from until exhaustion, and did standard dip exercises until our arms gave out.

The school house was at the bottom of a fairly large hill with the school house siting up at the top, sort of like a fort.  We often did different kinds of difficult activities, like carrying 20 gallons of water along with all of our gear, and we raced up the hill from the pit to the school house.

There were two large telephone poles that sat outside of the entrance the barracks.  The larger was painted green and had the words " Teamwork" carved into the side.  Any time our team messed something up, which happened a lot, we had to carry the large pole as a team to and from the school house during the classroom phase.  We also had to carry it to chow how for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Even during the classroom phase, there wasn't much time to take a breath and regain our composure.  At the end of the day, we cleaned the school house, and began getting the gear and truck ready to go out into the field.  

CCS consisted of communications, demolitions, land navigation, tactics, assault zones, and the final FTX ( field training exercise).

I made it through tactics on my first attempt, so that's what I'm sharing in this article.  Another article will share about assault zones, the final FTX, and the final 15 mile ruck march to receive the scarlet beret.

Communications

Communications, the core skill of a controller, was the first phase of learning all about the radios we'd be using at CCS.  We basically learned how to use the radios, how to do the basic functions, take them apart, and so on.  After the classroom phase, we went out and learned the basics of the radios ans used the out in the field on Fort Bragg.

Demolitions

The next week, we were back in the classroom; this time we learned the basics of demolitions. We learned how to calculate a time fuse ( giving the fuse enough time for us to light it and walk down to a safe place to watch our charge blow an item up) as also learned how to set different charges up.  

I enjoyed this part of the training.  I never liked math all that much is college or high school, but applying the calculations and watching how it worked to blow up stuff seemed fun.  Unfortunately, we messed up some of the calculations and received some punishment out in the field.

We spent time setting up charges on different appliances out in the open field ( such as a diamond charge) and watched it rip a wash machine in half.  We also put charges on thick pieces of metal, as we watched it get blown in half.

We also threw grenades in this portion of training.  We basically had an instructor standing behind a concrete bunker with us.  They instructed and watched us pull the pin and throw it as far as we could out on the range.  I do remember an instructor that said, " if you drop that thing, you're on your own.  I'm getting the hell outta here!"

Land Navigation

One of the most challenging events for me was land navigation.  

In the classroom, we went over how to read maps, how to use a compass, and we set up a pace count in the parking lot wearing all of our weight and gear. We'd later use that count when we were plotting our route in the woods, so we would be able to estimate how far we walked in between legs of our journey.

In the classroom, the instructors also went over the land navigation course that we would use to test our skills learned.  

All future CCT candidates please learn from my dumb mistake!  

The instructors warned us that all the points, during our practice and final evaluations were at the intersections of dirt roads.  We were told to NEVER follow the dirt roads to find the points; instead use our map in compass and plot the courses and walk through the thick North Carolina forests, which meant sometimes walking through intense, thick low lying areas.

When I heard you could follow the dirt roads, I kind of checked out and planned to cheat a little... bad! Never do that!  The instructors were gonna be out on ATVs checking on us.  If we were caught walking within 100 meters of a road, crossing didn't count, we would be eliminated from training. Seemed easy enough.  If I heard an instructor coming, I would act like I was crossing!

Once we were out in the field, we spent four long days ,with our gear on, practicing plotting courses and walking to different points, which were spread out over about 20 kilometers.

On Wednesday, we did it with our giant GPS split into teams of two.  They put a point in the GPS and we simply had to walk to the point.  I can't recall how far it was, but it was FAR.  Nobody made it to the end,  and when it was dark, they picked all the exhausted trainees up in a truck.  I was with a bigger guy, and several times we were stuck in thick brush ( we didn't think to go around it until later) and I trudged behind the guy plowing through the brush.  At one point, he fell.  He just remained on the ground yelling a loud, frustrated yell.  Later on that night, we did night navigation, which wasn't on our final evaluation.

Friday was evaluation day.  I did my plan of following the dirt roads.  We had 12 hours to find four points.  We were dropped of at around 0700 that morning ( this was one of the only individual events) and at each point, we were supposed to radio our coordinates over our hand held radios.

It was a hot, miserable July day and I started following roads from the beginning.  By around noon, I hadn't reached my first point.  I got turned around and lost track of where I really was, but I was all in on my cheat method.

By 1400, I finally reached my first point, but I began to think the course was impossible ( like the GPS nonsense) and I eventually got picked up looking for my third point around 1900. 

Over half of the class failed the land nav evaluation that day.  It had a lot to do with the heat, but it was a long, difficult course to begin with.

That night, my feet were shredded from walking around for 12 hours with 100 pounds on my back.  When I woke up to pee in the woods, I could barely walk.  That's when I heard the voice of one of the NCOs on the team.  " I can't walk either, man", I heard the guy say.  " I don't know how they expect us to do this tomorrow", he said.

An event that shifted my view on training

Of course, everyone's feet were messed up from the course.  The people that passed got a chance to rest the next day ( Friday) while the others took the test again.

My feet were in such bad shape, I didn't know how it was possible to retake the test, but I did what I always did.  I kept my mouth shut and expected to push through it.

One of the officers, and a few of the NCO's that failed the test began to complain about there feet being messed up, so eventually a medical person came out to check out our feet.  The morning before the land nav eval, they examined everyone's feet carefully.  

A few minutes later, I was ordered to get on the truck to be hauled to my first point.  None of the NCOs or the officer had to retest that day, and it wasn't because their feet were in worse shape.  I saw theirs and mine.  They looked identical.  They were allowed to wait until after tactics to try the evaluation again!

I didn't have time to realize how much bull shit that was.  I hobbled to the truck for another LONG day.

  I did the road method again, got lost, found another guy that was lost ( talking to other guys wasn't allowed) we shared information, and I finally reached all four points, with only five minutes to spare.

My body and feet were trashed from walking 24 hours in a panic because I didn't do it the correct way.  I later learned ,the next time through, that I could do the course in about 6 hours the correct way!  I plan on doing a detailed write up on land navigation later!

Tactics

Tactics was an interesting phase of training, and it was way more intense than I expected.  During this phase, we learned all about how to move as a team during an enemy attack.  We also graduated to using an actual M4 rifle and M9 that fired blank rounds.  ( Before, we carried around fake weapons with all of our gear.)

During the classroom portion of training, we went over how to move safely and efficiently in the schoolhouse parking lot.  Basically it was us moving in a line, and the instructor yelled, " contact"!  We immediately split into two teams.  While one team planted down on one knee and began firing, the other team began to quickly move away.  As you can imagine, this took a while to get where the instructors wanted us before we tried this out in the forest on Fort Bragg.

There was more in depth in formation on different ways to move to an objective point, but the main focus was on these drills.  The next week out in the field was interesting.

We also qualified on the M4 and the M9 in this phase.  We took an entire day of shooting, ensuring everyone qualified.  

This was the phase where we were also introduced to CS or riot gas.  This wasn't like basic training ( where they place a tablet in a room); they took us out to an open field and formed a line, put as our gas masks on, while the instructors placed several cans of gas by our feet. 

I give a lot of detail about the gas because it was one of the worst experiences for me in the CCT pipeline. 

I could hear the sizzle and feel the poison on my skin beneath my BDUs, and I knew it was about to get a lot worse.

After the first round, they did it again.  This time we were ordered to take off our gas masks.  Again, the smoke sizzled around our feet, and the chemical smell was overwhelming.  We were ordered to stand there and take in the gas.  I tried to hold my breath, but the cans kept being set off. 

 Eventually we had to take a breath.  The gas immediately burned my eyes, throat and nose.  Through the smoke, I heard the other guys coughing and gagging.  I saw a few guys trying to low crawl out. My eyes teared up and mucous was draining out of my mouth and nose.  I started to feel sick.

After that round was over, we did it again.  When the smoke filled the air around us, we had to state our name, rank and social security number.  I tried to keep coughing and not try, but an instructor grabbed me by the shirt and made me start talking.  I only got halfway through my social security number before he pushed me out.

After that, we had to do it again.  Everyone hesitated because many of the guys were still puking.  But we were allowed to wear our gas masks, and the instructors took a team picture.

The mistake that set me back to day 1 of CCS

Before we had the gas session, we put another barrel on our M4 ( they allowed us to shoot small plastic bullets at each other) and spent all day in the woods shooting each other like a game of paint ball.  Once we put the new barrel on, we walked with our back to the instructor, and they shot us in the back.  Those tiny plastic bullets hurt like hell coming out of the M4.

After the session shooting each other all day, we immediately went to get gassed.  After that, we reassembled our M4 rifles.  During the time of reassembly, I must have placed my M4 on automatic, not safe mode ( or it happened later), but regardless of how, my weapon was no longer on safe.

The next event we fast roped out of a helicopter with full gear.  Fast roping was not too difficult, but with almost 100 pounds of gear it was interesting.

When I exited the helicopter down the rope,  it was my first time out of an actual aircraft.  The combined force of and the weight made me fall on my ass when I reached the ground.  As soon as I fell on the ground, my weapon fired blanks in automatic mode.

The sound of the helicopter was so loud, I thought maybe nobody heard it.  As we formed up in a circle as a team, the sound of the helicopter was still loud, and I looked around at the team to see if they heard it.  As the chopper flew away, the team captain asked if the sound of the weapon was from me.  

As we formed up and got our gear ready for the next event, an instructor grabbed me, threw me on the ground, and told me I was finished.

It was obvious why he was so upset.  I'd heard many stories of operators being killed by an accidental discharge.  I was lucky.  It was only blank rounds that fired through the air that day.  

I learned a hard lesson ( one of many in the CCT pipeline) but I was given another shot.  Actually, I was given two choices.  I could quit ( I definitely considered it), or start back at day one of CCS at the beginning of Hell Week.  I was about two and a half months into the course, but I chose to do it all over again.

There were still two phases after tactics: Assault zones, and the final field training exercise ( FTX), which tied the entire course together in a week of missions.  

After my incident, I did continue into assault zones for a while,( running up and down a 4000 ft. dirt landing strip with huge panels and lights.  After the panels were lined up every 500 ft. ( daytime), or lights ( night), we landed a C-130 on the landing strips using phraseology we learned in air traffic control school.  

It wasn't just the accidental discharge that caused me to get set back. I also had a hard time qualifying with the M9, although I did great with the M4 rifle.  Also, throughout the entire school everyone of us received letters of reprimand ( LOR).  I got more than most of my teammates ( mostly through careless mistakes).  

I received them for various mistakes such as: a dirty knife, dull knife, and even for a rip in the crotch of my pants that happened during lunges in the pit.  The letters kept piling up, and when they removed me, they used many of the letters as documentation to support my setback.

I waited for the September class to start.  Since my body was trashed, I went home to try and recover, and get my mind ready to start CCS again.

In my next blog article, I plan to start with assault zones and the final FTX.  

I'm curious on how CCS has changed since 2006.  If you have any updated info or more questions about CCS, comment below.

Also subscribe to the mailing list for free e books and information in the future.

Kevin