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Joint Task Force builds skills, ties with RAF at unique exercise

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Parker Gyokeres
  • 621st Contingency Response Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  Units deploying to U.S. Transportation Command's Eagle Flag exercise at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst N.J., can expect to encounter austere field conditions, heated interaction with role players acting as difficult locals, and lots and lots of cargo.

But when air mobility specialists from the British Royal Air Force arrived to assume control of the airfield training area from the 621st Contingency Response Wing's 817th Contingency Response Group, it added a level of realism few anticipated.

"The Expeditionary Center set up an amazing scenario for us," said Col. David Kuenzli, Joint Task Force - Port Opening commander and commander of the 817th CRG. "There is no other venue like Eagle Flag besides an actual operation where you can train handing off to a follow on force to operate an airfield. Adding the complexity of a coalition partnership to the mix forced our team to address questions we would never have thought to ask."

Traditionally, contingency response forces assume they will handoff operations to a mobility type of operation conducted by a U.S. team with the same capabilities. Kuenzli said they were reminded during this week's exercise this was a bad assumption.

"Our doctrine tells us we will be able to hand off to any type of air operation," he explained. "It might be combat air forces centric; it might be strike, or surveillance. What the British did is they came in and announced they were planning to use the air mobility location we had established for a close air support and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance base.

"That forced us to think about how to run an airfield with both large cargo mobility aircraft, as well as small fast attack and unmanned platforms. Weapons storage and loading areas, airspace management for unmanned vehicles, and noise concerns with local populations were all things I considered before. Those were questions we could never have answered without face-to-face planning with our coalition partners."

The RAF was integrated into the large Eagle Flag scenario in two phases.

The British Expeditionary Air Wing is in the process of building their own contingency response organization, so for the first half of the week they were out in the field as observers and asked questions about how Air Mobility Command conducts its contingency response operations.

"On the last operational day of our exercise, our RAF observers returned as role players for the follow-on force who would assume control of the airfield operation the JTF-PO had established," said Kuenzli. "At that point it became a sharing of experience and information between coalition partners with a common goal."

The process wasn't as simple as handing the keys to the airfield over and getting on a plane, explained squadron leader Jim McGhee, RAF Expeditionary Air Wing training officer from RAF High Wycombe. His role as a member of the visiting training team was to prepare training programs for the Royal Air force equivalent of the U.S. Air Force's Contingency Response Wing. There was a lot of information that needed to be transferred and translated into the force structures used by the RAF.

There was a lot of surveying and examination, to include force protection, intelligence and manpower, McGhee explained.

"When we arrive, we will need to quickly go out and gather all of the data to fully understand what our EAW will need to continue the mission, to include force protection, intelligence and logistics," McGhee said. "Then we had to bring it in and put it all on the table and come up with a plan together for a smooth transition of airfield authority.

"In addition, this is an austere base where you bring everything you need to operate," McGhee continued. "This opened our eyes to the fact we won't always be working in an established base and will need to overcome a new set of challenges to just get operations up to speed."

Despite the challenges, McGhee saw the foundation of a strong partnership.

"A lot of the ways we do business is very similar," he said. "We share the philosophy every Airman is a warfighter first, and performing multiple jobs is essential to mission accomplishment."

Kuenzli agreed, and added that finding common ground is vital to working with outside agencies and even partner and coalition nations.

"The hardest thing about working in a team is identifying common ground and keeping conversations, agreements and coordination inside those boundaries," Kuenzli said. "It's easy with the RAF since we share a similar culture and many of the same methods of operation. But some nations are very different in the ways they operate and the priorities they have during operations. Finding the common ground and the red lines is much trickier, but the only way to learn these skills is to practice them together."

Kuenzli sees this as the beginning of a partnership that will grow to help them create a contingency response force able to respond much like the 621 CRW.

"This event was great but it was only the first step," he said. "We spent a limited amount of time doing a tabletop discussion trying to highlight the capabilities each of us brought and the limitations each of us had and tried hard to close the gap between the two. It was very informative but it was also very short and mostly an academic session. The next step is to elevate it to a more robust event where we make our Airmen actually attempt to solve the problems we identified

"It was a true pleasure working with Wing Commander Roberts and his officers and men," Kuenzli concluded. "They were all consummate professionals and incredibly eager to learn. I hope we get to train together again, as our Airmen really enjoyed the opportunity to learn from them as well."

Air Force Exercise Eagle Flag is a USAF Chief of Staff directed exercise, supported by Air Mobility Command. The training is directed by the USAF Expeditionary Center and executed by the USAF EC Expeditionary Operations School located at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.

Eagle Flag is designed for developing, testing and rehearsing the expeditionary combat support library of capabilities. Traditionally an air base opening exercise, it has evolved into a proof of concept and mission rehearsal for joint task force-port opening, close the operating location, aeromedical evacuation operations, defense support to civil authorities, contingency response element integration, irregular warfare, humanitarian operations and other contingencies faced by our nation and its allies.