56th RMO: Tip of spear on BMGR, aux field

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Luther Mitchell Jr.
  • 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  Every day Air Force pilots use the Barry M. Goldwater Range and Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field to train the world's greatest F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter pilots, A-10 Warthog pilots and combat aircrew.

The 56th Range Management Office staff provides security for high value assets and personnel who train and visit there every day. It's their job to work with local and federal agencies to keep those areas safe for all who use them.

"First and foremost our priority is to provide asset protection for the aux field, BMGR and all the facilities on them," said Chas Buchanan, 56th RMO director. "If a jet gets diverted there, we are responsible for it. Our security patrols the range looking for defacement or vandalization of our assets and nothing has been damaged or broken."

Contract security personnel patrol three major tactical ranges and four manned range facility buildings spread out over one million acres of land. Located within these tactical ranges are high-value assets in direct support of the flying training mission.

The range is bordered and looked after by three agencies.

The Marine Corps uses land on the western portion, the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in the south and the Bureau of Land Management manages the Sonoran Desert National Monument in the east.

The 56th RMO works with bordering agencies, federal, state and local authorities to best handle law enforcement issues on the range.

Along with asset security, the range is also patrolled for people illegally crossing the range and smuggling drugs, mostly trying to get to Interstate 8.

"If we run across trespassers, we detain them," Buchanan said. "We will stop them and call other law enforcement in, whether its border patrol or the sheriff's department who will then take them into custody."

In cases where outside law enforcement agencies need access to a range being used by the military, they must clear it with range management before they're allowed to access.

"We need to know where they are and what they need to do," Buchanan said. "We tell the military flights to stop dropping munitions. We still allow our jets to fly over the area, just not employ any munitions. After that, law enforcement can do their business."

Once it has been verified law enforcement have left the working area, pilots are then allowed to start employing munitions again. To date, there have been no known deaths from Air Force munitions to any trespassers on the range.

According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website, border patrol agents in the southwest sectors apprehended more than 400,000 illegal aliens last year trying to cross over into the United States. There have been more than 1,000 apprehensions on the BMGR this year.

Contractors at the BMGR also have to deal with drugs being illegally brought across the range and resulting seizures.

There have been several drug seizures at the BMGR in the past few years. Last year, there were 84 seizures on the range, and this year to-date, 24,206 pounds of marijuana were seized.

"Over the years there has been a steady trend in drug seizures and illegal crossings at the range," said Kevin O'Berry, 56th RMO intergovernmental liaison. "Illegals will tie carpet on the bottom of shoes to avoid detection and take advantage of the remoteness of the Sonoran Desert for covert travel."

Items retrieved or abandoned on the range include an AK-47, radios, cellphones, flashlights and knives.

Chiulista Services Incorporated, based out of Gila Bend Auxiliary Field, provides security for the Air Force sector of the BMGR.

The range falls within both Yuma and Tucson sectors of Customs Border Protection with border  patrol agents from Ajo Station in Why and Wellton Station in Wellton having border security responsibility.

Given the unique dynamic of managing a military training range within close proximity to the border, range management meets as required and formally to speak with law enforcement agencies about management of the BMGR and other operational issues.

"We meet every other month, six times-a-year between the Barry M. Goldwater Executive Council and the Intergovernmental Executive Committee which includes the border patrol and other law enforcement agencies," O'Berry said. "We sit down at the table and talk about all the issues pertaining to the management of the land and, the protection of its natural and cultural resources."

While the Air Force does not provide actual uniformed security for the range, range executives who oversee its use by Air Force personnel work to ensure it is safe for all who use it.

"We all have a common interest in best managing the land and environment, and we all work together to make it happen," O'Berry said.