130418-F-NL936-157

by SSgt Andrew Lee

SSgt Welby Ramos, a combat controller with the 22nd Special Tactics Squadron out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., watches as other members of his team land after parachuting 13,000 feet for training. A combat controller's mission is to deploy undetected into combat and hostile environments to conduct special reconnaissance, establish assault zones or airfields, while simultaneously conducting air traffic control, fire support, command, control, and communications and forward air control. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Andrew Lee)

Photographer's Narrative

 

I was covering a portion of the 2013 Angel Thunder exercise at the White Sands Missile Range. There were three Air Force combat controllers who were jumping out of a C-130 Hercules. I ran near the area where one combat controller was landing. Once he landed and gathered himself, I photographed him looking up on the horizon as he watched another teammate land.