Photo By Scott Sturkol | An aircrew with the 133rd Airlift Wing of the Minnesota National Guard operates a...... read more read more
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An aircrew with the 136th Airlift Wing of the Texas Air National Guard at Fort Worth and an aircrew with the 133rd Airlift Wing of the Minnesota National Guard both were operating C-130H Hercules aircraft at Sparta-Fort McCoy Airport on South Post on July 16, 2019, as part of the Patriot North 2019 exercise at Fort McCoy, Wis.
More than 700 civilians, volunteers, and National Guard Soldiers and Airmen from more than 20 states supported the 2019 exercise.
The exercise is designed for civilian emergency management and responders to work with military entities in the same manner they would during disasters, said Lt. Col. Ashley Nickloes, deputy exercise director for Patriot North.
Nickloes said the training helps test the National Guard’s homeland and deployment capabilities.
“The exercise tests the National Guard’s abilities to support response operations based on simulated emergency scenarios, such as a strong storm bringing high winds or a storm surge creating a collapsed building, mass casualties, and the need for search and rescue along with evacuations of injured,” she said.
During the exercise, National Guard members, along with local, state, and federal partners, deployed to various exercise venues to practice those response activities, including Fort McCoy.
“For what Fort McCoy provides, it has … (Young Air Assault Strip), where we can bring in C-17s and C-130s in addition to other aviation assets. This is a great field where we can come in and practice. You don’t have lights out here (on the airstrip), so this is what it would be like if they were flying into many areas in Afghanistan.”
Nickloes said Fort McCoy’s airstrip and the installation is especially useful for numerous exercise scenarios.
“(Fort McCoy) is a unique training area that allows us to have so many different training venues to train so many troops,” she said.
Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services each year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
| Date Taken: | 08.01.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 08.01.2019 11:46 |
| Story ID: | 334067 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 78 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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