AMC leadership visits 621st CRW, sees multi-capable Airmen up close Published Dec. 14, 2020 By Staff Sgt. Sarah Brice 621st Contingency Response Wing Public Affairs JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, Air Mobility Command commander and Chief Master Sgt. Brian Kruzelnick, AMC command chief, visited the 621st Contingency Response Wing at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, Dec. 11. Their visit to the wing was the team’s final stop on a two-day visit to JBMDL. Van Ovost and Kruzelnick engaged with Devil Raiders from various units who demonstrated their role in AMC’s priorities to develop the force, advance warfighting capabilities, project the joint force and ensure strategic deterrence. They were able to see firsthand how Airmen throughout the wing are the epitome of multi-capable Airmen who perform functions outside their primary specialties and apply it to the mission and the AMC priorities. “If I were to look up ‘multi-capable’ in the dictionary, there would just be a big picture of the 621st CRW at the end of the day,” said Kruzelnick. “They have every aspect of what we look for in a multi-capable Airman. They’re courageous, they’re curious, they have strong character. It leads to this divergent thinking of how to solve problems that haven’t been thought of before.” During their visit, Van Ovost and Kruzelnick observed the wing’s capabilities that cover the full spectrum of contingency response. With more than 140 Air Force specialty codes within the wing, the Airmen are divided into four major mission sets: air advisors, contingency response, command and control, and mobility support. The team got a closer look at the wing’s mission through demonstrations from an air advisor mobile training team, an Expeditionary Air/Ground Liaison Element team, Air Mobility Liaison Officers and Counter-small Unmanned Aerial Systems operators. Van Ovost was impressed by the air advisors’ ingenuity and ability to conduct virtual engagements with partner nations, an alternative method the units employed while unable to do in-person training due to the pandemic this year. “They’re doing air advising over the internet … they’re building those relationships still. Their credibility is still lethal,” said Van Ovost. “Air advisors are our building partnership capacity tool at Air Mobility Command. Together we build partnership capacity around the world so that we can achieve our national defense objectives.” One of the topics addressed was the wing’s recent involvement in Agile Combat Employment exercises and how contingency response fits into the Advanced Battle Management System, showing how the CRW enhances multi-capable Airmen to become a unified fighting force. “ACE doesn’t work because we have cool gadgets,” said Kruzelnick. “ACE works because the Airmen who have the ability to move into austere locations for a specific objective with a small footprint can do so because they carry these skillsets that allow them to get after exactly what we’re trying to get after. And that starts here.” Members of the ACE team were proud to show Van Ovost how the 621st CRW is incorporating ACE concepts into its operations. They emphasized the importance of having a good team when conducting ACE because it requires Airmen who are experts in their field to come together and work toward a common goal just like they do in everyday contingency response operations. TSgt Raffi Stambultsyan, 621st Contingency Response Squadron Resource Advisor said, “One thing you cannot get rid of is the ability of having a good team and that’s what we have here so I’m glad she got to meet our team.” The leadership team visited with Airmen from the 621st Contingency Response Group who recently returned from a short-notice port augmentation deployment to Afghanistan, showing the wing’s ability to remain agile and mobilize quickly to aid strategic deterrence around the globe. Devil Raiders continue to innovate and evolve to meet the demands of today’s ever-changing environment. When asked about the future of the 621st CRW, Van Ovost said, “What the contingency response wing brings is expertise and hungry, empowered Airmen that want to get the mission done. They’re the ones who are going to describe what we’re going to look like 10-20 years from now.”