Green Flag hosts joint unit training

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Mozer O. Da Cunha
  • 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La., --  Green Flag East, an exercise designed to provide The Joint Readiness Training Center with simulated combat scenarios was conducted at Ft. Polk, La., this month.
The exercise aims to develop service members' battlefield readiness skills by providing U.S Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps units with opportunities to operate together.

"We are simulating a scenario that stretches all across the east coast," said Lt. Col. Brett Waring, 548th Combat Training Squadron Detachment 1 commander. "There is an enemy nation and a friendly nation, with that we can tailor the scenario to look more like a real world situation."

Multiple units of the east participated in the exercise.

"The main players are the Army's 1st brigade and 10th Mountain Division [and] the 20th Air Support Operations Squadron," Waring said. "Additionally we have the 74th Fighter Squadron 'The Flying Tigers,' out of Moody Air Force Base, Ga., bringing their [A-10 Thunderbolt IIs], Airborne Warning Controls Systems out of Tinker Air force Base Okla. and more."

The exercise aims to develop warfighter skills.

"In a nutshell, we are trying to train the warfighter and make the joint team better," Waring said. "[We want] to give them the opportunities to learn about each other's capabilities to tackle scenarios that are as difficult as we can make them. If there are going to be lessons learned we want them to learn them here."

By providing the warfighter with situations and scenarios here, Green Flag prepares service members for what could happen on the battlefield.

"We don't want warfighters confronted with a situation for the first time on the battlefield," Waring said. "Any opportunity that we have to take lessons learned and incorporate [them] into exercises, we take that opportunity and make our scenarios more robust for our mission by providing advanced, relevant and realistic training."

The exercise also provides different military branches with the opportunity to communicate with each other in a joint environment.

"A lot of [communication] is exposure, anything that's unfamiliar becomes familiar the more you get exposed to it," Waring said. "Combining our units into a joint training environment provides that opportunity."

"You don't want your first combat sortie to be the most difficult sortie you have flown," Waring added.  "In my experience, training takes over when the bullets are in the air and it's time to do your bit for God and country."

The exercise also provides Airmen with the opportunity to maintain and launch aircraft at a different base.

"As far as [operations] on the flightline, its business as usual," said Staff Sgt. Chase Capehart, 23rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron dedicated crew chief. "We are there to produce and prepare aircraft - it's what we do."

Green Flag gives maintainers the chance to prepare their aircraft for real world scenarios.

"Any training helps," Capehart said. "The more you train, the more efficient you become when you practice how you play. [When] you go down range it just becomes muscle memory."

Airmen use the scenario as an opportunity to learn from other units.

"Working together with other units and branches just makes us a better team overall," Capehart said.  "We get to see how they operate, how they do things, piggyback off other ideas and it allows us to make a better, streamlined product."

The exercise provides Airmen with opportunities to develop new skills.

"During this exercise I was given the opportunity to work as an expediter organizing and directing the crew chiefs," Capehart said.  "As far as working on the aircraft, I'm very seasoned, being able to do new things like that during this exercise has really helped me develop."

By developing new skills, Airmen become more efficient on the battlefield.

"If something does happen downrange to the guy above me, I'm able to seamlessly fill in his shoes so we don't lose that mission capability," Capeheart said.

During the exercise Airmen think on their feet and solve problems as they come.

"It's better to make a mistake here than to make it downrange," Capeheart said. "During exercises you are forced to think on your feet, you have all the data to work the problems out."

By providing these scenarios and giving service members a chance to work and communicate as one unit, Green Flag develops knowledgeable Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines by giving them an opportunity to practice how they play.