CRW Airmen participate in Green Flag, JRTC

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Joshua King
  • Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Public Affairs
ALEXANDRIA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, La. --  Airmen assigned to the 621st Contingency Response Wing recently participated in exercises Green Flag and Joint Readiness Training Center near Fort Polk, La.

The exercises gave the Airmen a chance to test their ability to open a bare base, load and unload cargo from aircraft, and set up communications throughout different locations.

As a part of Green Flag the 621st CRW runs a command and control area linking Fort Polk, Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., and units operating in the surrounding area, to include a landing zone and the Alexandria International Airport.

The Aerial Port team unloaded and loaded 67 C-130 Hercules aircraft and moved 245.7 short tons of cargo during the exercises.  They also supported the movement of 78 passengers.

The communications team set up a medium communications package, a localized network so that if the satellite goes down the internet and phones are still up and running and can still communicate with units in the area.

"To my knowledge, this is the first time anyone has been able to get the MCP to work," said Staff Sgt. Ruth Walker, 621st Contingency Response Support Squadron MCP supervisor. "It is a great piece of technology and I'm happy we were able to get it to work. It was a great team effort."

The 621st CRW goes to multiple JRTC's every year, being a training and learning exercise for all of the team members that attend.

"It gives us hands on experience with all of our equipment," said Maj. Olin Johnson, 621st Contingency Response Squadron. "We know our jobs well but many of the problems that come up seem to be getting the bugs out of our equipment. These exercises allow us to figure those little issues out before we deploy for real world operations."

There were small injects thrown at the CRW team throughout the exercise. There was a simulated onboard fire while an aircraft was on the ramp, the Airmen in command and control called the fire department while other Airmen set up a cordon.

"The CRW Airmen did an excellent job," said Maj. Johnson. "In coordination with the England Air Park fire department, we conducted a generator fire response exercise.  Our maintainers, Ramp Controllers, and C2 personnel did all the right things."


During the final meeting with the observer, controller, trainer representatives, there were minimal things need to be changed by the CRW stating that they did everything very well.

Contingency Response units are self-sufficient and can deploy with all the personnel, equipment and supplies to execute the mission. As a Global Reach Laydown force, the 621st CRW bridges the gap between seizure forces and follow-on sustainment forces. The CRW is prepared to execute the mission for up to 45 days, and once redeployed home are reconstituted within 72 hours and ready to once again answer the nations call.