LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — FOX5 Investigates recently secured exclusive access to the top brass at Nellis Air Force Base to learn about the weapons school and training operations.
It took months for investigative producer Lisa Sturgis to arrange this sit-down with Colonel Jason Glynn, commander of the entire installation, and Colonel Ethan Sabin, who heads the weapons school. Sabin prefers to go by his call sign: “Bluto.”
MORE: Nellis Air Force Base: From desert airstrip to ‘crown jewel’ of military aviation
Training the trainers
During the conversation, Sturgis asked if Nellis’s elite weapons school was “kind of like Top Gun on steroids.” Sabin told her that the comparison was pretty accurate.
“If you’ve seen the movie Top Gun, it’s about training fighter pilots. This is about training the best instructors to then train the pilots,” shared Sturgis.
Sturgis learned through the base historian that pilots and instructors who had gone through the Red Flag training flew combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Afghanistan operations after 9/11.
“They said that it was harder going through the red flag training than actually flying the real-life combat missions,” Sturgis said. She explained that training exercises are intentionally difficult “because they want to make sure they’re prepared for anything.”
Lessons from Vietnam
The weapons school developed from lessons learned during the Vietnam War, when the United States military was losing a high number of combat pilots.
“There were a lot of planes getting shot down,” Sturgis said. “And obviously, they didn’t want a lot of planes shot down. So, they wanted to come up with a way where they would improve their skills so they would have more successful sorties.”
Exquisite airspace
The Air Force conducts its elite training in what the commanders refer to as “exquisite airspace.” Sturgis asked them to define “exquisite.”
“What they showed me was a 24-hour map of all the commercial jets coming in and out,” Sturgis said. “You can definitely see the clear airspace where Nellis is. And it’s 7,700 square miles of unrestricted training space.”
And military pilots from across the country, and around the world, come to Nellis to experience the singular conditions offered by Nellis Air Force Base. They’ll fly sorties day and night, while also learning new strategies and tactics on the ground.
City within a city
Nellis Air Force Base operates almost like its own city within Las Vegas, with a workforce comprised of 14,000 civilian and enlisted personnel. FOX5 also learned more about its operations.
“They have their own fire department. They have their own military police force. They have their own trauma hospital,” Sturgis said. “They have a fully staffed, fully functional trauma hospital.”
The trauma hospital opened to receive victims on 1 October, referring to the Route 91 shooting.
“They contribute about $4 billion to the economy a year,” Sturgis said.
Historical evolution
Despite its current status, Nellis actually started as a single strip of dirt in the desert. Planes would stop to refuel here, much like trains stopped at the early Las Vegas train station.
Originally called the Las Vegas Army Airfield, it trained World War II turret gunners and tail gunners. The base grew as military aviation evolved during World War II, and the Las Vegas valley grew with it.
Modern operations
From those humble beginnings, the base now welcomes some of the most advanced aviation in the world, including the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the F-15 Eagle, and the F-35A Lightning II.
“They don’t have any hand-me-down aircraft out there,” Sturgis said. “They’re flying with the latest technology.”
Colonel Sabin pointed out that aviators involved in recent operations in Venezuela and Iran were both conducted by graduates of the weapons school.
The base also houses the Warfare Center, separate from the weapons school.
“The Warfare Center is like a place to get your PhD in military strategy,” Sturgis said. “They’re taking a very holistic approach to training.”
The center focuses on producing innovative leaders for the future, emphasizing flight, leadership, and critical thinking skills.
“They talk a lot about the fighter pilot mentality,” Sturgis said. “So they want to inspire that in the people that go through this training course, and really generate the next generation of military leaders.”
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