Photo By Capt. Jason Carr | Tech. Sgt. Geronimo Abreu, 107th Attack Wing Security Forces, inspects his riot gear...... read more read more
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NIAGARA FALLS N.Y.- 120 Airmen assigned to the 107th Attack Wing participated and completed their annual large scale readiness exercise, Niagara Warrior, October 17-20.
Similar to past Niagara Warriors, the exercise was designed to simulate a contested operating area with degraded operating conditions.
From Civil Engineering to Communications, Medical, Security Forces, and Logistics Readiness, all available duty stations participated in the event.
This year however, focused on sustaining a presence in those conditions (rather than generate to deploy) with more advanced opposition forces capabilities.
Small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) were also introduced for the first time with help of both local and federal law enforcement who used the opportunity to familiarize and train themselves with the equipment, said Lt. Col. Damon Antonetti, the 107th’s A3/ A5 Officer (Operations/ Plans and Integration).
“It was a nice touch, being able to learn different nine-line, when and when not to call it in, it was good experience,” said Senior Airman Harry Hartman, assigned to 107th Security Forces.
Like many other like-minded training scenarios Airmen were then presented situational challenges, or ‘injects’, allowing them to practice their skills in a ‘real world’ scenario.
This year Airmen engaged in over 200 such challenges over the four day exercise.
Injects could range anywhere from a simulated cyber attack on a secured network, medical emergencies, disenfranchised Airmen, to chemical attacks, full scale assaults of the main gate, and riots.
“I really liked the drones that were used,” said Senior Airman Shane Such, assigned to 107th Communications Squadron. “It provided a great example of a very real-world, emerging threat we see coming out.”
“Over all I thought it went really well,” said Such. “We were really able to show that were able to do our jobs in a situation like this and effectively accomplish the mission.”
“We had the opportunity to tabletop a scenario where a chemical attack occurred, and we had to explain how we would handle that, step by step, start to finish,” said Staff Sgt Richard Berrios, assigned to 107th Medical Group.
Other Airmen were excited about building moral and connecting with their fellow squad members.
“Being able to showcase our experience and training like that was very exciting, and I think now everyone feels more confident going down range,” Berrios added.
“I really like the camaraderie,” said Hartman. “Security Forces is a pretty tight-nit unit, we’ve all been together for at least five years, and some folks have been here for over 15, its just nice to have all of us out here having fun while training.”
Some necessary paint points remain universal. “Being in MOPP 4 wasn’t fun,” said Such.
Preparations have already begun to improve the next iteration slated for 2025.
“The members who deployed for this iteration provided some great feedback,” said Antonetti. “In 2025 we will continue to develop our readiness culture by reinforcing our Airmen’s various skills needed to operate in a combat environment.”
| Date Taken: | 11.20.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 11.20.2024 10:37 |
| Story ID: | 485730 |
| Location: | NIAGARA FALLS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AIR RESERVE STATION, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 43 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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