PYONGTAEK, South Korea — As the F-16 pilot started his strafing run over the snow-covered target range ahead, the South Korean special forces soldier waited to hear the pilot’s words — “Wings level” — crackle over the radio.

He’d then have a quick second to say “Cleared hot!” — the all-important words giving the pilot clearance to fire his weapons.

Standing next to the Korean soldier was Master Sgt. Tae Kim, U.S. Army Special Forces Detachment-Korea. Kim, an American of Korean descent, also speaks Korean; he was there to help coach the soldier through how to call in an airstrike in English.

Kim’s unit, and U.S. 7th Air Force members, spent two weeks teaching 30 elite South Korean special operations troops how to call in airstrikes in English and call in strikes with aircraft equipped with the joint direct attack mention, or JDAM, smart bomb.

The training began Feb. 20 and ended Friday. Its rationale: Should South Korea’s elite forces ever be at war, they’d need to know how to call in airstrikes in Korean and English, the language of their U.S. ally.

Most trainees were from the South Korean army’s special forces, but two were from Korea’s Naval Special Warfare Brigade, similar to the U.S. Navy SEALs, said Maj. Jefferson Panton, Special Forces Detachment-Korea commander.

Now, with Kim watching his trainee, the F-16 pilot roared into his approach. But instead of saying “Wings level,” he said, “One’s in,” meaning his aircraft, no. 1, was into its attack pattern.

The Korean soldier was puzzled momentarily. In seconds, the pilot had flown beyond the range and banked into a right turn. Kim gave the Korean soldier a quick on-the-spot instruction — that American pilots may say “Wings level” but also might say “One’s in.”

“We asked for immediate re-attack on that same target,” Kim said. This time, when the pilot said, “One’s in,” the Korean soldier “was able to clear him hot so it was a successful mission the second time around.”

The training included classroom sessions at South Korea’s Special Warfare Training Group facility near Yongi, southeast of Seoul, followed by mock airstrike drills on a mountainous live-fire range in east-central Korea.

There, Air Force F-16 fighters and A-10 attack planes flew mock bomb and strafing runs that let the Koreans apply the classroom instruction. The jets dropped “inert” training bombs; on others, they fired bursts of live cannon fire, Panton said. The training focused on two main skills.

One is what the military calls “9-line CAS.” CAS stands for close air support: ground troops directing attack planes to a target that may be in “close proximity” to friendly troops. The “9- line” refers to a nine- part format U.S. forces use to supply pilots targeting information.

The Koreans also were shown how to use a laser range finder to help get the right map coordinates needed to target a JDAM.

The training helped the Korean troops hone a key battle skill, Panton said Friday. “The Air Force flew hard for us and the soldiers got quite a few calls in per soldier,” he said.

“They actually got out there and talked to a real pilot and actually guided the bird in. Until you do that, you don’t have that confidence.”

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