SFS training

After receiving a blast of pepper spray in her face, Airman 1st Class Frankie Macfie handcuffs Airman 1st Class Blake Johnson during a 377th Security Forces Squadron training exercise. Staff Sgt. Joshua Sheets, left, checks that Macfie has properly double-locked the handcuffs. The training was done in an empty lot on the west side of Kirtland Jan. 3. (Photo by Lee Ross)

Security Forces train for 'spicy' situations

Published Jan. 10, 2014
By Lee Ross
Nucleus staff writer

KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- After little more than four months into her career in the Air Force, Frankie Macfie, age 20, was treated to an experience she won't soon forget. On Friday, she got a face full of pepper spray, and then had to practice fighting and subduing her fellow Airmen.

Tech Sgt. Jerry Chandler, who supervised the 377th Security Forces Squadron training exercise, said Macfie and the other trainees that day had joined the Air Force on Aug. 2. After their "initial exposure" to pepper spray, they all had to run a course and demonstrate command and control procedures, as well as hands-on skills, he said.

Macfie completed the course with relatively few complaints during the exercise. She later said it was one of the most hellacious things she's ever done.

"My face hurts so bad," Macfie said after dousing her face with the hose. "I've never felt anything like this before in my life."

After completing the course, Airmen could only run water from a hose over their orange faces. They walked around a gravel lot near the training field in a slow circle as they waited for the pain to lessen. The experience hasn't made Macfie reconsider her decision to join the Air Force, though, she said.

"No way. I love it," she said.