The sole purpose of Company F, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, is air traffic control. Their mission is to ensure safety by controlling the routes of aircraft coming in and out of airspace and on the flight line.

Falcon Ground, located on the Combat Aviation Brigade’s flight line, monitors aircraft leaving and returning from flights. As the helicopters taxi toward the take-off/landing pads, pilots need to know what vehicles may be coming or what other aircraft may be landing.

“We control the patterns of the aircraft,” said Spc. Robert Smith, Co. F, 2-3 Avn. Regt. who works at Falcon Ground. “Because of the walls they can’t see each other so we tell them where to go. We move them in and out.”

The towers offer a 360-degree view through the windows. This set-up allows the traffic controllers to see any air or ground traffic or obstacles the aircraft may encounter during take-off and landing. The controllers are then able to reroute the aircraft to prevent potential injuries to Soldiers or damage to aircraft and to cut down on time wasted.

At the Liberty Tower, on Camp Liberty, members of Co. F, 2-3 Avn. Regt., provide safe, orderly, expeditious flow of traffic for the eight landing pads they are responsible for, said Spc. Melvin Kizzee.

“We separate aircraft to prevent midair collisions,” Kizzee said. “We report traffic, reroute aircraft to avoid traffic, issue advisories, issue clearances for take-off and landing, advise them on closed zones - which is airspace they can’t fly through because of different operations; we advise them on known airport conditions – it’s a lot of things.”

The pilots contact the tower prior to entering that tower’s airspace, usually two to three miles, said Kizzee. Then the traffic controllers ensure the airspace is clear. If the airspace is not clear, the air traffic controllers radio the pilots to advise them on how to safely enter the airspace and land the aircraft. Pilots could depend on their own eyesight or try and talk to other aircraft as they fly, however, with so many landing pads and the numerous helicopters flying, clear communication is lost, said Spc. David Burress, Co. F, 2-3 Avn. Regt.

“You get eight helicopters flying with all of them trying to talk to one another – it makes a lot of ruckus,” Burress said. “It gets hectic so instead of trying to talk to each other, they use our frequency and talk to us.”

At Forward Operating Base (FOB) Kalsu, the air traffic controllers have additional safety precautions they take to ensure the safety of the pilots and the crews of incoming and outgoing aircraft.

“We de-conflict traffic, let pilots know about weather changes, about fire missions… we monitor the (unmanned aerial vehicles) and handle (medical evacuations),” said Spc. Jennifer Hicks, Co. F, 2-3 Avn. Regt. “We make sure the MEDEVACS get priority and let the other aircraft know when they’re going.”

The combined efforts of various towers act to further protect the Soldiers who fly during the day and night, said Smith. “They tell us what they want to do and we tell them how to do it safely.”