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Joint Base hosts Eagle Flag exercise, Soldiers and Airmen practice port opening

  • Published
  • By Capt. Andi Hahn
  • Kentucky National Guard Public Affairs
JOINT BASE McGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  The Kentucky Air National Guard's Contingency Response Group mobilized here July 26 as part of joint exercise Eagle Flag 10-3, which simulates a deployment in support of humanitarian relief efforts.

This year's Eagle Flag exercise includes members from the Army and Air Force, both active and Reserve components, who come together to form the Joint Task Force-Port Opening. There are 147 service members participating in the exercise, including 82 Kentucky Guardsmen from the 123rd CRG; 50 Soldiers from the Army's 689th Rapid Port Opening Element; 10 Airmen from the 621st Contingency Response Wing; three members of the New Jersey Air National Guard's 108th CRG; and two civilians from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.

The JTF-PO is thrown into a mock scenario, deployed to a struggling part of a poor country called "Nessor."  Participants are evaluated on their ability to work together to rapidly establish a port opening to support humanitarian relief operations within that country.

The JTF-PO Air Force assets provide the air mobility expertise and the Army assets provide the ground surface movement expertise to operate as one team, expediting movement of cargo from Lakehurst Airfield to a pre-determined forward node for further distribution. Bottom line -- getting the right stuff to the right place at the right time.

This is only the second Eagle Flag joint exercise, and the first year a National Guard unit was invited to participate.

"This provides a good challenge for us working with the Army," said Air Force Maj. Kevin Thornberry, JTF-PO logistical officer-in-charge. "We are getting more and more engaged with the Army with these kinds of joint activities and [the exercise] helps us understand their capabilities and they understand ours."

Army Capt. Matt Zayd, 689th RPOE operations officer-in-charge said everyone realized, both Army and Air Force, active and reserve components, there were initial challenges to overcome, but they worked through them to establish a good flow of operations.

"Once you overcome the difference in lingo and terminology, the basics are the same," said Capt. Zayd. "Understanding each other and working together continually allows for the mission to be successful."

This is the first Joint Task Force-Port Opening with both active and reserve components from the Army and Air Force, however, the Kentucky Air National Guard has a distinguished history of supporting disaster relief missions overseas, their most recent airlift mission-request following the deadly earthquake in Haiti earlier this year.