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Every Special Warfare career is highly specialized, that’s why their training needs to be, too.

Learn more about the four unique careers that make up Special Warfare by visiting U.S. Air Force Recruiting's YouTube channel

Want to learn all about the U.S. Air Force Special Operations jobs? AFSOC has four main career fields within it: Special Reconnaissance, Pararescuemen (PJ’s), Combat Controllers (CCT’s), and Tactical Air Control Party (TACP). There’s a fifth “Career Field” that we discuss, known as the Special Operations Surgical Teams. This video goes over the various missions, capabilities, and purpose of each of these elite career fields. If you want to learn more about Air Force Special Warfare, watch this video!

Senior Airman Anthony Bushrod and Tech. Sgt. Aaron Loggins, 18th Combat Weather Squadron staff weather officer, win Champion SWO Team at the Thunder Challenge 2021, at Fort Hood, Texas, Nov. 3, 2021. Thunder Challenge 2021 is the first world-wide SWO competition in history, testing meteorological forecasting application, agile combat employment and marksmanship proficiency, in order to identify the most exceptional weather Airmen in the world. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Ashley Sokolov)

Tech. Sgt. Aaron Loggins, Thunder Challenge competitor, provides an interview during day three of Thunder Challenge on Nov. 2, 2021, at Fort Hood, Texas. Thunder Challenge 2021 is the first world-wide SWO competition in history, testing meteorological forecasting application, agile combat employment and marksmanship proficiency, in order to identify the most exceptional weather Airmen in the world. (U.S. Air Force video by Staff Sgt. Christian Sullivan)

Captain Adam Klemons, Thunder Challenge coach, provides an interview during day two of Thunder Challenge on Nov. 1, 2021, at Fort Hood, Texas. Thunder Challenge 2021 is the first world-wide SWO competition in history, testing meteorological forecasting application, agile combat employment and marksmanship proficiency, in order to identify the most exceptional weather Airmen in the world. (U.S. Air Force video by Staff Sgt. Christian Sullivan)

U.S. Air Force Staff Weather Officers (SWOs) from across the globe kick off day one of Thunder Challenge with a multitude of physical activities, Oct. 31, 2021 at Fort Hood, Texas. Thunder Challenge 2021 is the first world-wide SWO competition in history, testing meteorological forecasting application, agile combat employment and marksmanship proficiency, in order to identify the most exceptional weather Airmen in the world. (U.S. Air Force video by Staff Sgt. Ashley Sokolov, Master Sgt. Corey Schuler, and Staff Sgt. Thomas Hill)

U.S. Air Force Staff Weather Officers (SWOs) from across the globe complete day one of Thunder Challenge, Oct. 31, 2021 at Fort Hood, Texas. Thunder Challenge 2021 is the first world-wide SWO competition in history, testing meteorological forecasting application, agile combat employment and marksmanship proficiency, in order to identify the most exceptional weather Airmen in the world. (U.S. Air Force video by Staff Sgt. Ashley Sokolov)

The role of a Special Reconnaissance operator is to collect information that goes into planning for whatever military operations is happening. They can be inserted in the battlefield where compromise is not an option.

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Derek Bolton is a 1st Weather Squadron staff weather officer assigned to 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. Bolton provided meteorological support to the Army unit in support of Northern Edge 2021. Approximately 15,000 U.S. service members are participating in a joint training exercise hosted by U.S. Pacific Air Forces May 3-14, 2021, on and above the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex, the Gulf of Alaska, and temporary maritime activities area. NE21 is one in a series of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command exercises designed to sharpen the joint forces’ skills; to practice tactics, techniques, and procedures; to improve command, control and communication relationships; and to develop cooperative plans and programs. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Capt. David Bedard/Released)

In this episode, we have MSgt Taylor Riggan giving us some insight into what the Special Reconnassance career field has been like for him.

In this Fort Report, U. S. Air Force meteorologist attend the U.S. Army Weather Support Course hosted by the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion at Fort Huachuca, Arizona so they can function in a multi-service environment.

Alright. Alright. ALRIGHT. We hear you. We LISTEN. Trent is really hard to nail down to time, but it's even harder to get him to bring on a close friend and talk all things AFSPECWAR and where the Special Recon career field is going. But guess what? WE DID IT. Well, Trent did it, but at least we got it out there. Aaron is there too.

We brought on Garret Lewis to talk about his very non-standard career, his experience in Special Operations Weather Technician (SOWT) and now as a Special Reconnaissance Man (Special Reconnaissance), and we pick his brain on "Where is this going? What is the mission set? How can we be best utilized?!"

Air Commandos, along with family and friends of U.S. Lt. Col. William “Bill” Schroeder, attend a building dedication ceremony at Hurlburt Field, Florida, June 21, 2019. The Special Tactics Training Squadron annex building, which formerly housed the 10th Combat Weather Squadron preceding its inactivation in May 2014, was dedicated to Schroeder. Schroeder, a Special Operations Weather Officer and commander of the 342nd Training Squadron, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, was fatally wounded when he placed himself between an armed individual and members of his squadron, allowing them to escape unharmed, in April 2016. (U.S. Air Force photos by Senior Airman Rachel Yates)

Lt. Col. William Schroeder, the 342nd TRS commander, discusses the move from Hurlburt Field, Florida, to Lackland Air Force Base at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas on July 31st, 2015. Video by Airman 1st Class Brycen Guerrero, 1st Special Operations Wing Public Affairs

Lt. Col. William Schroeder deactivates the 342nd Training Squadron Detachment 3 at Hurlburt Field. Video by Airman 1st Class Brycen Guerrero, 1st Special Operations Wing Public Affairs

TSgt (Ret) Bryan D. Carnes entered the Air Force in 1994 and he served as a Special Operations Weather Technician. He supported operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, and deployed throughout the Middle East supporting Operation Enduring Freedom and Enduring Freedom-Philippines.

On a moonless night in October 2001, an American helicopter lifted off from an airbase in Uzbekistan, banking south on a covert mission into Afghanistan. Inside was one of America’s most elite and unknown special operators, hand-selected for a job so important that the wider war on terror hinged on its success.

In New York and Washington, D.C., the funerals continued. Families gave up hope of a miracle rescue in the rubble of the World Trade Center and Pentagon. But if this soldier succeeded he would never shoot his gun and no one outside the military would know his work.

He was a weatherman.

More precisely, he was a special operations weather technician, known as a SOWT (pronounced sow-tee). As the Department of Defense’s only commando forecasters, SOWTs gather mission-impossible environmental data from some of the most hostile places on Earth.