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Key Resolve exercise displays key results

  • Published
  • By Capt. Steven Byrum
  • 15th Air Mobility Operation Squadron
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Airmen from Travis helped kick off Exercise Key Resolve Feb. 28 at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea. Key Resolve is a combined exercise that involves more than 2,000 U.S. forces and nearly 10,000 South Korean forces and is geared toward maintaining the readiness of the Combined Forces Command staff and components.

Theater command and control experts from the 15th Air Mobility Operations Squadron and 349th Air Mobility Operations Squadron augmented the Air Mobility Division within the 607th Air Operations Center. During the exercise, they planned and executed airlift, air refueling and aeromedical evacuation missions in support of both U.S. and Korean forces. They also provided crucial subject matter expertise to senior leaders on how to best utilize mobility assets in the Korea Theater.

"This year, more than in any year we have seen, Key Resolve has been a truly combined effort with our Republic of Korea air force counterparts," said Capt. Dan McVay, 15th AMOS airlift planner and USAF air mobility control team chief. "Working with our ROKAF counterparts is always rewarding. We are continually asking each other questions -- questions we wouldn't have thought of in a unilateral environment - that force both organizations to deepen our understanding of mobility operations on the peninsula."

"It was a different and new experience being augmented to the (Key Resolve) 12 Exercise", said Capt. Yu Jung Yoon, ROKAF airlift control team chief. "It has been an opportunity for me to concretely think about diverse mobility responses to unusual situations in the Korean Theater of operations."

The exercise focused U.S. and ROK personnel on combined crisis management, generation of humanitarian assistance and initiation of peacekeeping operations.
"I liked being able to work with the other planners, such as air interdiction and ISR," said Maj. Howard Thomas, 349th AMOS tanker planner. "You really see how your job fits in with the others."

"We need to be fully prepared in response to unforeseen shifts and events in the security situation of the region," Yoon said. "This exercise is key to the development of efficient combined operational capability through thorough understanding of U.S. and ROK operational systems."

Key Resolve 12 is the most recent in a long history of concerted military exercises between the United States and the Republic of Korea.

"I'm proud to be a part of a 60-year history of combined military effort," McVay said. "My grandfather served in the Korean War and its rewarding to carry on that tradition."