Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst -- Devil Raiders from the 621st Contingency Response Wing participated in Exercise Mobility Guardian 2019 at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, from Sept. 8-28.
Exercise Mobility Guardian is Air Mobility Command’s premier, large-scale mobility exercise designed to build full spectrum readiness, strengthen partnerships and prepare Airmen to deliver rapid global mobility.
"The Devil Raiders are excited to participate in MG-19, not only because the exercise provides a fantastic joint training opportunity for all our teammates, but also because MG-19 will enhance the readiness and effectiveness of our mission partner wings throughout AMC,” said Col. Doug Jackson, 621st CRW commander. “We've been challenged to support Hurricane Dorian in the midst of the early phases of MG-19, but in coordination with the lead exercise planners, we've struck an appropriate balance, and we are ready to demonstrate the capabilities we bring to the fight."
Earlier this month, United States Air Force Airmen from the contingency response assessment team conducted airfield surveys across four airfields in The Bahamas in support of the U.S. Agency for International Development Foreign Disaster relief efforts in response to Hurricane Dorian.
CRW Airmen deployed scalable forces to assess, open and operate airfields during exercise Mobility Guardian to validate AMC’s readiness to conduct mobility operations in contested, degraded and operationally limited environments.
As well as integrate with Five Eyes partners and Air Combat Command partners from the base defense group to accomplish the air base opening.
Five Eyes is a joint-nation alliance comprised of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States organized to enhance coalition warfighting interoperability.
Assessment teams were deployed to determine the suitability to receive aircraft carrying personnel and supplies and establish air base operations at Moses Lake, Selah Creek Landing Zone and Amedee Army Airfield.
At these locations, the CRW integrated with the 515th Air Mobility Operations Wing, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, and the 521st AMOW, Ramstein Air Base, Germany, to forward deploy with a coalition force led by international partners from the Royal Canadian Air Force.
“This is showing our integration and interoperability,” said Lt. Col. Scott Taylor, 821st Contingency Response Squadron director of operations. “This is testing us in a contested, degraded and operationally limited environment and providing a glimpse at the resources acquired for agile movements. It is giving us a chance to plan for and test and execute several agile movements where we take smaller teams into a base, operate for a small amount of time and then move out.”
Devil Raiders train to fight alongside joint and international partners and strengthen partnerships that are vital to success.
“When we look at future wars and future operations, they are going to be joint and coalition,” said Maj. Nathan Tilton, U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center director of plans and strategy. “Sometimes they are going to be coalition led. Learning how to operate in a contested, degraded and operationally limited environments with our Five Eyes partners is critical because that is who we go to war with.”
The diversity of air mobility mission sets requires AMC to build joint leaders, and the CRW’s unique squadrons demonstrated that capability during Mobility Guardian.
Air Mobility Liaison Officers conducted Joint Force Entry operations, Air Advisors provided International Coordination Cell support, and CR Airmen conducted airfield assessments and airbase openings.
Devil Raiders advise, direct and project airpower…anytime, anywhere, and are always ready to provide rapid global mobility.
“Unmatched Rapid Global Mobility exists because of the ready and resilient Airmen who execute the mission day in and day out,” said Gen. Maryanne Miller, AMC commander. “Training exercises such as Mobility Guardian are critical to ensuring our Airmen are able to keep AMC’s promise to always be there for those who depend on us, both today and tomorrow.”