Photo By Master Sgt. Joey Swafford | A U.S. Air Force C-130J Super Hercules aircraft from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas,...... read more read more
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As the night sky provided concealment, U.S. and Polish Soldiers clear the landing zone of opposing forces allowing British Royal Air Force CH-47 Chinooks to deliver an Airfield Assessment team to evaluate the airstrip during phase two of Exercise Swift Response 16.
The team from the 621st Contingency Response Wing, 821st Contingency Response Group, assessed the airfield before a contingency response element consisting of 821st CRG and 512th Airlift Control Flight Airmen arrived to start receiving supplies by cargo aircraft in order for 82nd Airborne Division Soldiers and coalition partners to build combat power in the area for sustained operations.
“Our role in the exercise is to bring in real airflow rather than notional airflow so that the supplies and troops won’t have to be trucked in breaking the reality of the scenario,” said Staff Sgt. Andrew Meyer, 921st Contingency Response Squadron airfield manager. “We added realism to the exercise by having aircraft land and bring in the needed supplies instead of staging supplies, it gives it a real world feel.”
“Although we are a small force footprint, we provide critical capabilities and requirements to ground forces via cargo aircraft, said Capt. William Jackson, 821st CRS Airfield Assessment Team ops officer. “This scenario was very realistic and very complex, and was an opportunity for forces of many different nations as well as military members of all ranks to demonstrate their capabilities.”
Participating in a large scale exercise like SR16’ was beneficial to the CR Airmen and it allowed multinational partners and the Army to see what capabilities the 621st brings to the fight.
“We all know our roles, but the more you practice and the more involvement you get with your sister service and joint nation partners the better you are going to get,” said Meyer. “It also spreads to them the knowledge of what CR forces are capable of so we all fit seamlessly together during real world operations.”
Another benefit the exercise provided is that it created obstacles for the Airmen to overcome in a training environment so when a real world tasking emerges they will be more than ready for the challenge.
“Every mission is different, and this one came with many challenges from working with host nation partners and the Army to issues with the weather,” Meyer said. “With every mission though we have a set checklist that we run and there are certain metrics that you have to hit, and we hit them every time.”
“Rarely does anything go as expected, most planning is conducted to provide an understanding of the capabilities and limitation available to the team,” Jackson said. Understanding this, with creative thinking, tough decision making, and hard-working adaptable Airmen, we find ways to come up with good solutions.”
The 621st CRW Airmen commonly referred to as Devil Raiders, are uniquely capable of rapidly deploying to quickly open airfields and establish, expand, sustain, and coordinate air mobility operations.
“Our CRW Airmen have performed tremendously,” said Col. Rhett Champagne, 821st CRG commander. “We don’t do a lot of large scale exercises like this in the AF, but the attitude of our Airmen in this exercise has been outstanding. There has been a lot of learning by working with our sister services and foreign partners, and it’s been a tremendous asset for us to be involved. Our real world operations will most likely happen on foreign soil with foreign partners or other Services; so, this experience has been beneficial to our Airmen.”
| Date Taken: | 06.24.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 06.24.2016 13:47 |
| Story ID: | 202393 |
| Location: | HOHENFELS, DE |
| Web Views: | 211 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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