First Friday Briefing - September 2003

(Photo by: CMSgt Ron Jetton)

It stands more than eighty feet off the low country bottom land of South Georgia . Only the occasional Department of Natural Resources fire tower equals the height of the new control tower built at Georgia ’s Townsend Bombing range located near Brunswick . Climbing the more than 150 steps to the red and white-checkered Control Tower, squeamish visitors are urged to look straight ahead or up, never down. The eighty-foot tower commands a panoramic view high above the treetops of McIntosh County and provides a superior vantage point to direct hundreds of fighter aircraft that use the range annually.

The new 80-foot high control tower is the first phase of many improvement projects for the twenty-two year old range that Air Guard officials say will soon be the finest air-to-ground weapons training available in the United States.

“With the new tower combined with our every-increasing array of threat emitters and realistic (Joint Munitions Ground Targets), we are well on our way to becoming the leading Air National Guard range in the nation,” said Lt. Col Jim O’Brien, Commander of the Townsend Range .

Cutting the ribbon for the new Towsend Range tower are (L to R): Lt Col Todd Freesemann, 165 Civil Engineers Squadron; Maj Gen William Searcy, Commander, Georgia Air National Guard; Maj Gen David Poythress, The Adjutant General of Georgia; and, Lt Col Jim Obrien, Range OIC at Townsend Range. (Photo by: CMSgt Ron Jetton)

The new Tower essentially doubles the height of it’s the original tower in when the range opened on October 1, 1981 .

“It was little more than a box on stilts when we first started,” says O’Brien. “Since its beginning the dedicated and creative airmen assigned to this range have continually improved it and transformed it into a highly capable Air Operations Center that integrates all the critical systems at one point.”

Inside the box high atop the tower are a myriad of communications and electronics systems that provide constant contact with aircraft and pilots entering the range airspace. The ubiquitous field glasses, once the mainstay of the air traffic controller, only goes to confirm what a bank of highly sophisticated radar and sensing devices continuously relays back to the controller. From the tower, realistic threat simulators called ‘smoky sams’ hidden amongst the high grass and rusting military hulks can be fired near the aircraft simulating counter offensive actions from ground forces.

“We no longer have to wait for a flight to clear the tall pine trees before visually identifying them,” said O’Brien, “we will be able to visually pick them up on the horizon and direct them in on the target.”

Major General David Poythress, Georgia’s Adjutant General cut the ribbon on the new tower and went on to emphasize the important role played by Georgia’s Townsend Range in providing realistic training for today’s combat fighter pilots.

“Our goal with this new tower and with the schedule of improvements which are coming to the Range is to make this site the premier “one-stop” joint training range of the future. We will be able to provide an intense and robust electronic threat environment, advanced crew debriefing methods and customer service beyond belief,” said O’Brien.

Each year hundreds of aircraft from every military service utilize the range to hone their bombing and strafing skills.

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