165 Security Forces Squadron holds tryouts for new Special Response Team Story & Photos by Tech. Sgt. Caila Arahood | 165th Airlift Wing | Georgia Air National Guard
“If you go, I go.” This is the mentality required by the U.S. security forces Airmen who went through the initial assessment on Mar. 12, 2021 that they must complete to join the 165th Security Forces Squadron’s newest undertaking, a Strategic Response Team. The team, led by Tech. Sgt. Joseph Overholt, a noncommissioned officer in-charge at the 165 SFS, Georgia Air National Guard, located at the Savannah Air Guard Base, Ga, will be a group of security forces Airmen who are highly trained and equipped to respond to emergencies requiring advanced police tactics. Overholt served eight years as an active-duty Air Force security forces specialist, three years as civilian police officer and SWAT operator for the city of Savannah and now is a full-time security forces Guardsmen at the 165th Airlift Wing. “This assessment is supposed to seem impossible,” said Overholt, “I want to see these Airmen pushed to their absolute limit and observe how they respond under this kind of pressure, and ultimately see them 16 | The Georgia Guardsman
push each other and keep going even when they want to quit.” The assessment requires each defender to complete an official Air Force Physical Fitness Test, a timed obstacle course individually and again as a team, a ¼ mile team ruck march while carrying a telephone pole as a team while wearing full combat gear and a gas mask, shooting box drills with a rifle and a pistol and lastly, an interview and feedback session, said Overholt. “This “You go, I go” mentality I have is originally from the latin phrase “Ecce ego, mitte me” which translates to “Here I am, send me,” Overholt said, “ I am excited to have a group of people who understand this concept and are volunteering to put themselves in greater harm and take on greater risk together for a greater cause.” “The assessment was very challenging,” said Airman First Class Colin Ricco, a security forces specialist at the 165 SFS, “I continued to think about my “why” for doing what I am doing, which is my family and my
