The 755th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron completed its final mission at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, on Dec. 1—two days before the unit officially inactivated, according to a Dec. 17 release. The squadron, nicknamed the Reapers, completed a five-hour vehicle and foot patrol outside the wire, securing the airfield from indirect fire attacks. “It’s kind of historic. It’s not often that you can say that you are the last security forces … to conduct a [ground] combat mission in Afghanistan,” said TSgt. Gary Rand, the Reaper 10 squad leader on the mission. For the last six months, the Reapers provided security beyond Bagram’s perimeter, pursued improvised explosive device emplacers and insurgents firing rockets and mortars onto the base. “There have been no complex attacks at Bagram since the Reapers were assigned to provide the outside the wire security of Bagram,” said Lt. Col. Seth Frank, commander of the 755th ESFS, which comprises multiple security forces units, states the release.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.