JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Virginia – They stay up all night and chug too many energy drinks. They have psychiatrists and chaplains on call, and a therapy dog named Lily.
Secluded in a dimly lit, cavernous maze of computer screens, they collect and analyze mission data that is transmitted from an aerial, unblinking eye — drones — flying anywhere in the world.
The airmen who walk the halls of the 480th Intelligence, Reconnaissance and Surveillance Wing headquarters here are among the 6,000 airmen around the globe committed to fighting a new type of war where the margin between victory and defeat lies in massive amounts of information.
They work at such a rapid rate that leaders are putting forth efforts to stop these airmen from burning out. The wing's leadership has molded the Comprehensive Fitness Model — an attempt to help airmen balance their busy lives through targeted programs, activities and resiliency skills — to cater to airmen involved in these operations.
"In each one of our groups, we have now resourced to have a doctor, a medical tech, a psychologist, a psych tech, a chaplain and a chaplain's assistant available and on our operations floors," said Col. Timothy Haugh, the wing's commander.
Haugh said the wing is constantly working to best posture these airmen to sustain the mission and motivate them during their careers.
"These are our enlisted airmen, predominantly, [using] the general weapons system that produces thousands of intelligence reports every day" Haugh said Nov 17. "For us, the investment in the brain matter of all of these very talented airmen is what makes the difference."
Intel overload
At any given time in the Middle East, there are more than 160 Air Force fighter, bomber, ISR, airlift, air refueling and other types of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft that support Air Forces Central Command operations in partnership with sister services and allied nations, according to an Air Force official. In the fight against the Islamic State group, Air Force warplanes through Nov. 17 have conducted almost two-thirds of the 956 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, Air Force figures show.
The analysts at Langley continue to watch these events, processing the intelligence through the Distributed Common Ground System, or the DCGS. They monitor video feeds coming from a Predator, Reaper, Global Hawk or U-2 unmanned aerial vehicle, sift through lines of chat conversations with pilots, and watch as strikes dissolve the area below.
In 2013, such information translated into 460,000 hours of full-motion video, 2.6 million images and 1.7 million signals intelligence reports, according to officials.
Intel airmen can begin working a new mission in a day's time, unlike airmen in other career fields who get two weeks' notice for a new deployment cycle. And these airmen — most between the ages of 19 and 25 — sit side-by-side regardless of their active-duty or reservist capacity.
"The team that exists at this site, they're my fusion lead for things that are going on in the Central Command [area of responsibility] and fuse it ... or make sense of it for the supporting commander," Haugh said.
Occupational hazard
Haugh and his team's mission, aside from identifying adversaries and threats, is to constantly monitor the occupational health for these airmen working 12-hour shifts, for three to four days at a time.
One surprising area of concern: dental hygiene.
"Our biggest problem is dental," said Lt. Col. Cameron Thurman, the 480th's surgeon. "They're staring at computer screens for 12 straight hours and you can't miss a guy running across the screen with an AK-47 ... or good guys are gonna die ... so a lot of things that they do is sit there and chug Monsters and energy drinks left and right to stay vigilant."
Thurman said the need for more sugar has led to intel analysts having the worst cavity rate in the Air Force. But "the fact that we know that is a significant step forward," Haugh said.
If airmen must drink high-end sugary drinks, Thurman has a few tips.
"The worst way is the way most of us do it, which is to sip on it over a long period of time throughout the day," Thurman told Air Force Times. "You [are] continuously bathing your teeth in that sugar-acid mixture all day. So if you're going to do it ... you should drink some water afterward to wash it off as best you can off of your teeth."
While energy drinks are becoming an Air Force-wide problem, Thurman said, he hasn't seen overwhelming evidence that shows airmen are plagued with other risks such as heart palpitations or agitation. But some leaders didn't take a chance — a few years before Thurman arrived, one group commander mandated that all energy drinks needed to be removed from his facility's vending machines.
While Haugh isn't looking to do the same, he has put another practice in place. Thurman said the wing provides education on the effects of sugar intake, fatigue management and mild exercise during breaks, some of it coming from the newly created "Wingman Tactics Process."
The program aims to collect and review best wingman practices already in place throughout the wing, and then share those ideas with the remaining wing members. It starts at the bottom — if there is a local solution to a problem affecting a small group of airmen, the successful solution gets passed on and grows to the next level.
The Wingman Tactics Process is modeled off the Air Force's weapons and tactics processes, but Haugh has fashioned it to be more proactive for the airmen.
Some examples: techniques to optimize the new Airman Comprehensive Assessment Form; resiliency team tactics; a 'What if tragedy occurs' exercise; and developing a Heritage Hall for airmen.
"If our wing members have a tactic that enhances the way we care for our Airmen, or accomplish the mission, let's share it," Haugh said in a release in October.
Airmen also have the four pillars — spiritual, social, mental and physical — of the Comprehensive Assessment Form to turn to in order to build core strength. A struggle, thus far, has been the social aspect for these airmen stuck in a room for hours on end.
Overcoming isolation
While a multitude of programs are available under the CAF's four pillars, Thurman sees intel members investing in their spiritual and mental well-being most.
"Most of these airmen are in between the ages of 18 and 25, and most people in [that age group] do not have physical medical problems," Thurman, in the Air Force eight years, said. But having an extremely stressful job at that age is what makes having someone to talk to extremely important, he said.
The wing is trying to keep the airmen interacting in as many social ways as they can because they are isolated in more ways than one.
Intel airmen aren't always interacting with other members of the Air Force because of their out-of-sync schedules, Thurman said. A second issue is secrecy. "They may have the best day of their military career ... and they can't tell anybody about it," he said. Some intel airmen working on Army bases or in remote locations are geographically isolated as well.
Working in shifts for these airmen will probably not change — Thurman said the airmen have their own family life and schedules that, for now, work for them.
With 2,000 people at DCGS-1, the Langley intel platform, "it's impossible to override a schedule that makes all 2,000 people happy," Thurman said. Wing leaders have done a good job in giving the airmen leeway to deal with their personal issues before they step into the pod that makes up their daily activity, he said.
But the wing has managed to create a social network among the DCGS airmen.
"Last month we closed DCGS-1 for eight hours and moved the mission over to another DCGS ... and got everybody together for a 'warrior day,' " Thurman said. The competitive nature and the camaraderie of the day promoted stress relief.
For now, these airmen will be working together, socializing together and keeping Air Force dentists busy, too.
