My first supported unit as an Enlisted Terminal Attack Controller (ETAC) was an Army tank battalion. Technically this wasn't my first unit as I had finished my certification while deployed to Bosnia and got a couple months in at Brcko, but it was my first home-station unit.

Usually at our home station we don't have a ton of interaction with our supported units. We're stationed on the same post and all, but we have a lot....a LOT of currency training to deal with, but we do check in with our units and if they go on a field exercise, so do we. I'm fortunate that I had a good relationship with the Smage (Battalion SgtMajor) and he knew the deal because my guys were in a weird position. As Air Force, our job was to work with the supported unit, not for. While the Army had to take care of our vehicles, and they had to provide us...well me in this case, with a M113 Armored Personnel Carrier, once my radio pallet was installed it was an Air Force Weapon System. Reported to Congress on a monthly basis and supposed to have the same maintenance priority as a fricken F-16. When deployed, even on exercise, my Army Driver belonged to me. For all intents and purpose he was temporarily Air Force.

This wasn't something I made up......the Army 4-Stars and the Air Force 4-Stars hashed this crap out long before I was an ETAC and we all usually had copies of the resulting Interservice Support Agreement (ISSA) in case somebody got stupid about it.

Now normally I tried to NOT be stupid about it. I mean sure, my guys are not supposed to do ANY extra duties....we're here for one job only, but if the Smage has a problem we can help with I'm down...just realize if my mission comes up all bets are off. I also know enough to keep my driver well-hidden and taken care of. Normally he only leave my track to refuel and shit. If he wants/needs food (or anything else) I'm on it. No need to tempt some officer or SNCO to try and steal my guy for whatever dumb thing they go going on.......

....anyway we're going out for essentially a 10 day to 2 week long field exercise. Since all my previous experience is with Infantry I know I'm going to have a bit of a learning curve. I also know I'm not likely to get diddly-squat for aircraft on this exercise because.....duh. This is an Army exercise and if we brought in a mission or three of A-10's to the tank battle the Army is not going to get a lot of bang for their training bucks. One of the shitty parts of the job was that when shit was real, everybody loves us, but when it's an exercise.....we're generally useless. Hey, training is training and I'm here to do my (appropriate) part. I spend most of my time working with the Fire Support Officer working immediate and pre-planned Close Air Support (CAS) requests we know aren't going to get filled (or if they do the A/C will no-show). I work with the Air Defense Artillery (ADA) guys because frankly I just don't trust them to not shoot down my A/C, or to leave hostile A/C alone (that's a whole another story!).

During every battle I'm going forward, but I'm not going to do it foolishly. Generally speaking my battalion usually had one company of tanks fighting, one in close reserve, and another arming and refueling. I don't think the training space we had was really big enough for all three tank companies to be fighting at once. My M113 is a bit unique, but if you didn't know what to look for you'd not be able to pick it out of a lineup. I quickly established the habit of sticking with the close reserve guys, as close to the ADA vehicle because everybody could pick them out and then I could also help them shoot down appropriate A/C. I could skootch forward as needed.

The Commander was fine with this since he knew where I was. The other officers, and the Smage, were fine with this plan because the CO was and because they too knew how to get ahold of me.....well, everybody but the S3. That Major did not like me running around "doing my own thing" and he was a bit vocal about it. The second day he orders me to meet his tank at a specific spot near the Tactical Operations Center (TOC) and he gives me his tank number. Now I know I don't answer to him, but I'm new....still learning about how Armor fights and this isn't really a fight worth having yet.

I show up at the appointed time and place near the TOC and fuck if I can find his tank. The tanks have these big-assed placards on the back of the turret with numbers an sometimes and chevron. I'm looking.....looking....nope, can't find it. Those tanks take off and I figure maybe the S3's tank just isn't here yet. After a half hour the battle's starting and fuck this, I need to get into place to do nothing, so I take off. Now for anyone thinking, "Why don't you just walk up to one of those tanks and ask for help/directions?" the answer is that it is a super quick way to unalive yourself. You don't walk anywhere near an active (on) tank....they'd knock you over and run over your ass and never even know. Looking back I probably could've used my radio.....but I don't have an answer why that didn't occur to me.

Now I know some here are already shaking their heads at a real obvious thing, but I'll fill everybody in the same way I learned.....

After the battle the S3 tracks me down and chews me out because I didn't do as he commanded. I explained that I was where he asked me to be when I asked me to be and I could not find his tank number. He's like, "Dumbass it's the tank with the '63' on the turret!". See at that time I didn't know the rather simple numbering structure and those number denoted position and the chevrons denoted companies..... I just explained that maybe he should've told me to look for the '63' and not the tank number spray painted on the back of the tread skirt.....you know the one that gets covered in mud the second the tank goes off-road.

The next couple of battles the S3 tries to get me to follow his tank into action, but I allegedly have missions occurring so I got my own thing to do and I'm going to do them. After a couple of days of this though, because I'm trying to figure things out...well I figure some things out. See in this unit the Battalion Commander has a tank, like the S3, BUT he also has a M113 that follows him around. When his tank gets killed, he basically jumps out and then jumps into M113 and continues directing the battle on our end of things. So the S3 has track envy! He just wants me to be his gawd-damned fucking combat taxi! Not just no, but HEEEEELLLLLLLLL NO! I can't be doing my job and be his bitch at the same time, so that is so not happening.

All this comes to a head on one of the last battles. I might be having A/C coming so I had my driver pull us out from our normal spot (after alerting the ADA guys, of course) and we're in the middle of a road while I figure out where we need to be to get the control. As I'm head's-down in the map my Airman taps me on the shoulder and screams (the track is loud AF) that there is "some guy" banging on the back of the track demanding to be let in. I yell to the Airman, asking if he recognizes the guy...he does not. I yell back "Tell him to FUCK OFF!!!" and then tell my driver on the intercom to head out. We speed away and do our thing.

Of course, after the battle I have a not-so-nice "discussion" with the S3 because evidently he was the one banging on my track, wanting to commandeer it. Now I've had a week under my belt seeing how things go and I don't put up with it. I inform him, in no uncertain terms, that he is NEVER going to commandeer an Air Force Weapons System, I don't work for him, and if he has a problem with that we can go ahead and speak with the Brigade Commander (Senior Army Officer out on this exercise).

Lucky for me the Smage had my back and got the Battalion Commander, who just told me "Good job today" and that I should probably go check on my guys. I don't know what was said after I left, but I didn't have any problems with that unit for the duration I was their ETAC.