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McConnell holds historic exercise

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Armando A. Schiwer-Morales
  • 22nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. --  "Grab your mobility bags and suit up," was the call McConnell AFB Airmen received Sept. 15, as a historic nuclear operational readiness exercise kicked off.

Within hours, the first of many Airmen were airborne, bound for a deployed location.

McConnell flexed its mobility muscles in a first-of-its-kind exercise that deployed more than 100 Airmen accompanied by 12.8 shot-tons of cargo on four KC-135 Stratotankers to Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D., to support combatant commanders with air refueling assets.

"Each of us took an oath, at some time and point any of us could be asked to do that which we hope none will ever be called upon to do, but if we were to be called or so tasked then it has to be second nature, it has to be the way we have trained," said Walter DeClue, 22nd Logistic Readiness Squadron installation deployment officer. "Our resources and, yes, even our very lives and existence depend on us being able to get it right the first time and may that be the one and only time."

Throughout McConnell, Airmen rallied to rapidly process deployers through a personnel deployment line. Units built pallets to carry the cargo on KC-135s. After the preparations were made, the deployers where flown to Grand Forks AFB where they tested their abilities to set up and operate from a forward operating location.

"This exercise is the first of its kind and highlights what McConnell is capable of doing," said Capt. Leah Vanagas, 22nd Air Refueling Wing chief of wing inspections. "This exercise will be benchmarked by Air Mobility Command for other units tasked with this mission."

As the exercise began to wrap up and the deployers returned to McConnell, lessons learned were collected and reviewed to prepare the base for the upcoming Operational Readiness Inspection in October 2011.