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Airmen, Soldiers join on Lakehurst for Eagle Flag exercise

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Zachary Wilson
  • U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center
JOINT BASE McGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  More than 140 Airmen and Soldiers worked together on a new concept during the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center's Eagle Flag exercise on Lakehurst April 12.

Eagle Flag is the U.S. military's premiere exercise for validating logistics port-opening procedures in an expeditionary environment.

The servicemembers teamed up to perform a Joint Task Force Port Opening Exercise. This calls upon the military to open a port of debarkation in an operating location to immediately begin mobility operations.

The objective of the exercise is to "conduct a field exercise focusing on joint expeditionary capabilities to rapidly establish and initially operate a port of debarkation and distribution node, facilitating throughput in support of combatant commander executed contingencies," as described by the Eagle Flag 10-1 mission statement.

The scenario involved a boundary dispute between two countries, creating a massive influx of refugees into a third nation. Airmen and Soldiers were called upon to ship, transport, coordinate and distribute thousands of pounds of supplies to provide relief to the refugees in the impacted nation.

"This Eagle Flag differed from past exercises in that there was not a robust threat," said Tech. Sgt. Michele Vargas, an exercise observer and controller with the EC's 421st Combat Training Squadron. "The role players were meant to add to the realism of the scenario but ultimately the main objective was for the responding force to coordinate the humanitarian relief."

"Joint Task Force Port Opening operations fall under U.S. Transportation Command and Air Mobility Command," said Capt. Andrew Cullipher, officer-in-charge of Eagle Flag. "In the event there is a high security threat, the combatant commander is responsible for providing force protection and resources to handle that threat."

To illustrate the point, he brought up a recent real-world event.

"Look at what happened in Haiti," Cullipher said. "The contingency response group took control of the airfield with special operations forces and began working with the Army to push supplies out to the people immediately. That's the scenario we are really training for here."

Cullipher pointed out members of JB MDL's 817th Contingency Response Group and the Army's 688th Rapid Port Opening Element were the training audience for the last Eagle Flag in August . They also worked together in Haiti this past January. The synergies built during field training paid dividends when the two units deployed to a real-world contingency.

One part of this Eagle Flag scenario, which may have been familiar to past exercise participants was the role players hired to interact with troops both in a make-shift village complete with a bank, civic center and contracting office.

On one mission, the Task Force commander, Col. Quintin Hartt, visited the village of Sabor and was accompanied by contracting Airmen who were in town to procure supplies for the base.

The colonel met with town elders and expressed a willingness to form partnerships and trade information and assistance.

While fictitious, these scenarios reflect actual events, and the role players take their jobs seriously.

"I would do this job for free if I was retired," said Leon Gromowa, a retired Marine and Vietnam combat veteran who regularly participates in JB MDL events. "The bottom line here is we are saving lives by providing this training."