by Staff Sgt. Kris Levasseur 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
It’s 2 a.m., and you’ve been called in to work. As you arrive, you notice flashing lights and yellow tape blocking the entrance. Wiping the crust from the corner of your eyes, a young agent begins filling you in on the situation. Though he tells you what you are there for, nothing prepares you for what happens next.
You enter the building filled with an indescribable sickening smell — there is a dead body in the room.
Situations like this are not common, but any public affairs Airman will likely find himself or herself facing a similar occurrence. The first time I was in that situation was an eye-opening experience. I was not prepared to deal with what I was seeing through the lens of my camera. Thinking back, I now realize that with more thorough training, I could have handled the situation better.
Photo by Airman 1st Class Michael Stuart Joe Parise, Air Force Office of Special Investigations 13th Field Investigations Squadron special agent, discusses combined training between the 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs Office, AFOSI and several other agencies during an interview Sept. 20 on Ramstein.
The majority of what PA Airmen do on a day-to-day basis is on display for the world to see. In a nutshell, we write stories, take photos and shoot videos to tell the Air Force story. Our job is to highlight our most valuable resource — Airmen. Most people don’t get to see one core element of what PA Airmen do: alert photography and video documentation for evidentiary purposes.
Airmen of the 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs Office held an innovative field training day Sept. 20 to enhance their capabilities by introducing their photographers and broadcast journalists to some of the more challenging situations they will likely face taking alert photos.
What made the training truly unique was the collaboration with the agencies outside PA who we work with routinely. Being able to understand exactly what they need from us and why they need it put our mission in a completely new perspective for me.
With the help of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations 13th and 4th Field Investigations Squadrons from Vogelweh Cantonment, the 86th Security Forces Squadron, the 86th Airlift Wing Sexual Assault Response Coordinator and several other agencies, the training became something more than any of us could have imagined.
The AFOSI agents and experienced alert photographers created several scenarios using a combination of live actors and training mannequins to mirror scenes they have seen in the past. They included domestic assault, child abuse, suicide, suspected homicide and a building fire.
It is our responsibility to take photographs of fatalities, evidence of rape, abuse and assault victims, aircraft accidents and mishaps, damage to government property, environmental damage and safety incidents. Our photos are used by investigative agencies to ascertain the truth and preserve evidence.
Mistakes in this line of work are not an option. Failure on our part cannot only slow or halt the investigative process but, in some cases, can destroy the lives of the victims or let a perpetrator go
free.
I have never seen our training conducted in this way before, but now that I have, I wouldn’t want to see it any other way. It was as close to the real thing as you can get.
From start to finish, the training was flawless, and because of that, their ability to perform the mission should be as well.
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News for the Ramstein, Kaiserslautern, Landstuhl & Baumholder military communities in Germany 
It’s 2 a.m., and you’ve been called in to work. As you arrive, you notice flashing lights and yellow tape blocking the entrance. Wiping the crust from the corner of your eyes, a young agent begins filling you in on the situation. Though he tells you what you are there for, nothing prepares you for what happens next.
You enter the building filled with an indescribable sickening smell — there is a dead body in the room.
Situations like this are not common, but any public affairs Airman will likely find himself or herself facing a similar occurrence. The first time I was in that situation was an eye-opening experience. I was not prepared to deal with what I was seeing through the lens of my camera. Thinking back, I now realize that with more thorough training, I could have handled the situation better.
Joe Parise, Air Force Office of Special Investigations 13th Field Investigations Squadron special agent, discusses combined training between the 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs Office, AFOSI and several other agencies during an interview Sept. 20 on Ramstein.
The majority of what PA Airmen do on a day-to-day basis is on display for the world to see. In a nutshell, we write stories, take photos and shoot videos to tell the Air Force story. Our job is to highlight our most valuable resource — Airmen. Most people don’t get to see one core element of what PA Airmen do: alert photography and video documentation for evidentiary purposes.
Airmen of the 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs Office held an innovative field training day Sept. 20 to enhance their capabilities by introducing their photographers and broadcast journalists to some of the more challenging situations they will likely face taking alert photos.
What made the training truly unique was the collaboration with the agencies outside PA who we work with routinely. Being able to understand exactly what they need from us and why they need it put our mission in a completely new perspective for me.
With the help of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations 13th and 4th Field Investigations Squadrons from Vogelweh Cantonment, the 86th Security Forces Squadron, the 86th Airlift Wing Sexual Assault Response Coordinator and several other agencies, the training became something more than any of us could have imagined.
The AFOSI agents and experienced alert photographers created several scenarios using a combination of live actors and training mannequins to mirror scenes they have seen in the past. They included domestic assault, child abuse, suicide, suspected homicide and a building fire.
It is our responsibility to take photographs of fatalities, evidence of rape, abuse and assault victims, aircraft accidents and mishaps, damage to government property, environmental damage and safety incidents. Our photos are used by investigative agencies to ascertain the truth and preserve evidence.
Mistakes in this line of work are not an option. Failure on our part cannot only slow or halt the investigative process but, in some cases, can destroy the lives of the victims or let a perpetrator go
free.
I have never seen our training conducted in this way before, but now that I have, I wouldn’t want to see it any other way. It was as close to the real thing as you can get.
From start to finish, the training was flawless, and because of that, their ability to perform the mission should be as well.