Leader shares AOR experiences

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Melissa Dearstone
  • 75th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
HILL AIR FORCE BASE --  Lt. Col. Anthony Maisonet, commander of the 75th Security Forces Squadron held a Warrior Call on Oct. 18. Maisonet talked about his roles and responsibilities while he was deployed at Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan.

In Feb. 2010, the colonel went on his second deployment, this time to Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan for six months. During his time over there, he had two different roles.

"I was duel-hatted in Afghanistan," said Maisonet. "My first job was commander for the 451st Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron, which was about a hundred person squadron in charge of flight line security. North Atlantic Treaty Organization which owns Kandahar Air Field had a Force Protection Wing, where I also became the Operational Security officer for that wing."

Maisonet said the hardest challenge to overcome at Kandahar Air Field was having to communicate and understand the other 21 different countries that were also on the base.

"The biggest challenge was trying to understand how the other countries' militaries operate and trying to get that common thread amongst everyone so we can all work together," said Maisonet.

Common ground had to be found when Kandahar Air Field endured two major ground attacks.

"We were the only forward operating base that had endured two ground attacks," he said. "Ground attacks are rare and we were very successful with having seven enemy killed in action and zero coalition forces injuries."

When the ground attacks happened, Maisonet was told to come up with a Base Defense Plan.

"For the Base Defense Plan, I used our Operational Readiness Exercise preparation and actually used slides from our BORTA defense," he said. "It helped as a guide for me to develop the Base Defense Plan. All I had to do was adapt it to Kandahar Air Field and teach the other foreign countries."

Maisonet said that despite the ground attacks that occurred, he was very proud of all the countries that overcame the challenges successfully and the versatility the United States Air Force had shown while in Afghanistan.

"I'm very proud of the United States Air Force Security Forces versatility," he said. "One minute they were guarding the flight line, another time they could be doing law enforcement, where as every other service and every other country, has one specific job and that is all they do."

Maisonet said there is no doubt in his mind that all the years of participating in ORIs and other inspections got him ready for dealing with the attacks in real world. He welcomes the inspection team and looks forward to showing the team what defenders can do when faced with a challenge.

Growing up, Maisonet always knew he wanted to be a police officer just like his father who was a New York City police officer for 20 years.

"My two best friends are New York City cops, their parents were cops, so ever since I was born I have always been around cops and have known that is what I wanted to do," he said.

Maisonet said his father told him not to become a cop and forbade him to take any of the New York City police tests, so he went the military route and got accepted to the United States Naval Academy and then cross commissioned into the United States Air Force.

"Once I got my commission into the Air Force, my father said I could be anything I wanted to be, so I decided to become Security Forces and have done that throughout my Air Force career."