Special Forces train with special skill

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - New Mexico sees a lot of the Marines and Air Force men and women around Albuquerque and a number of them are Special Forces, some of the toughest military men on the planet.

Recently they invited KRQE News 13 Anchor Matt Mauro on one of their training missions, where they fly a C-130 from Albuquerque to Roswell and do day and night skydiving missions. These are the same kind of missions the troops carry out in Afghanistan, Somalia and all over the world.

It starts at Kirtland Air Force Base with a briefing and then everyone loads their gear into the C-130. An hour later, we're above Roswell and it's time to jump.

"I'd be lying if we saying it wasn't scary," says Staff Sgt. Troy Campbell, who's made almost 300 jumps with the Marines. "So it is scary and that's what helps us keep the edge. If you're not afraid you're probably missing something and you're probably not going through the correct steps so a good healthy fear."

The Marines and Air Force face that fear in the day and especially at night, when they can not exactly see what they are jumping into.

"It just increases that stealth of us coming in," says Sgt. Campbell. "But there's nothing scarier than jumping out to something you can't see and trying to land on something you can't see either."

The Marines who train in Albuquerque usually do reconnaissance missions, where they go into the enemy's area, scout out what the enemy is and isn't doing, then report on it.

The Air Force pararescue jumpers go into war zones to help treat and rescue anyone who is hurt.

"Anybody can get there, but once they get there, they have to able to treat. So they're paramedics," says Jim Cusic, who was a pararescue jumpers for years and is now in charge of the school at Kirtland. "Pilot goes down, team, seal team, whatever…they're in trouble and got injuries, whatever, we go get them."

The training these Special Forces do is imperative, because at any minute they can be shipped out of New Mexico and into a war zone.