Travis SWAT team competes regionally

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Patrick Harrower
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  The Travis Special Weapons and Tactics team traveled to San Jose for two days Sep. 13 to participate in the annual Best in the West SWAT competition.

The competition is hosted by the Santa Clara Sheriff's Office and had 30 teams compete this year.

The SWAT teams come from all over the West Coast and as far as Las Vegas, but the SWAT team from Travis was the only military unit present.

"We feel very confident we will do well here," said Master Sgt. Hartman, Travis Emergency Services Team member. For reasons of operational security, the team members first names are not disclosed. "All of the main members on our team have extensive training through the FBI and SWAT school. Members then must spend six months on the team before they can get their SWAT patch."

Although its members were confident, this was the first year that a team from Travis had participated and the team had to do some research to be prepared.

"The biggest challenge was the unknown," Hartman said. "We haven't been here before, so we didn't know how some of the courses were and the weapon systems we would be using, but, being military, we get more training in vehicle assaults, building clearing and air base protection than a standard police officer so we are ready for anything."

The courses the team had to master were the physical challenge course, sniper course, two-person assault course, jungle trail, combined weapon course, shotgun course and team assault course.

"The jungle trail was the toughest thing I have ever done," said Staff Sgt. Jackson, Travis EST member. "Our teamwork is really tight, though, and we keep each other motivated. Our team has a tighter cohesion because we train on our days off."

The Travis SWAT team is strictly voluntary, which means members of security forces that wish to be SWAT must dedicate their off time to the training and missions. The other teams they competed against were full-time SWAT members.

"We practice a lot with local area SWAT teams around Travis," Jackson said. "We learn a lot of tactics and techniques from each other and we actually have a lot of the same qualities, which is helping us here. I think we're doing pretty well for our first time being here."

The overall winners for this year was the team out of Las Vegas Metro Police, and the Travis team placed 26th but is planning on going back next year to apply everything they've learned.
"Our mindset is to get through the house, get to the target and take care of business," Hartman said. "That's what we want to do here."