Team Dover aircrews take part in Mobility Guardian

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Zachary Cacicia
  • 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. – Aircrews from the 3d and 9th Airlift Squadrons, and other Team Dover units are taking part in the Air Mobility Command’s premier exercise, Mobility Guardian, July 31 to Aug. 11, 2017, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington.

“Our ability to move national power to any location is key to the security of the United States,” said Gen. Carlton D. Everhart II, AMC commander. “Mobility Airmen are often the first to arrive and the last to depart. They provide continuous support to the joint warfighter. Simply put, success requires our Total Force team of mobility Airmen to work together with joint and international partners. Exercising our capabilities together is critical so when we are called upon, we can deliver quickly and precisely.”

Exercise Mobility Guardian is designed to enhance the capabilities of Mobility Airmen by preparing them to succeed in the dynamic threat environments of today and tomorrow.

“We’re creating an exercise that will encompass everything AMC does,” said Lt. Col. Jeremy Wagner, Mobility Guardian director. “We basically took every skillset from AMC and said, ‘What would the ideal exercise for each of our different mission sets look like?’ Then we combined them all into one.”

The exercise is about strengthening partnerships, discovery, learning and improving together as an integrated team, according to officials. Mobility Guardian will provide Mobility Airmen an opportunity to work with joint services, international partners and industry.

This exercise is being conducted with mobility aircraft heavily involved in the war against the Islamic State and employed worldwide to deliver hope to those in need. The Combat Air Forces are supporting the exercise with an array of fighter and bomber capability to include F-35s, F-16s, A-10s, F-15Es, F-15Cs, B-52s and the B-2.

The 3d AS sent three aircrews to the exercise and operated McChord C-17 Globemaster IIIs. They flew a total of seven sorties to and from the following locations: Moses Lake, Washington, the Mountain Home AFB Range Complex, Idaho, and Pope Field, North Carolina.

The 9th AS also took part in the exercise, but because the Dover AFB C-5M fleet was under a stand-down, they borrowed a C-5M from Dover’s west coast sister-base, Travis AFB.

“Really what I would say the most important part of the mission was the hard work and dedication put forth by both active duty C-5 squadrons,” said Capt. Christopher Waszak, 9th AS pilot and training officer. “It was an integrated effort between the 9th AS and the 22nd AS at Travis.”

According to Waszak, the 9th AS aircrew transported essential equipment for a mobile command center belonging to the 55th Contingency Response Wing.

For both Team Dover squadrons, essential training was accomplished on various levels by the pilots, loadmasters and flight engineers who participated.

In addition to the flying squadrons, the 436th and 512th Maintenance Groups sent 19 experts to augment Travis maintenance. The 436th MXG also sent six aerospace ground equipment drivers to McChord to support transiting C-5s, and eight C-5 experts to Fairchild AFB to support their transient alert functions. In addition to this, the 436th Operations Support Squadron sent a small contingent of intelligence Airmen to support the exercise.

Throughout the exercise, teams are making observations and gathered metrics that will be passed to AMC leadership to develop an appropriate site picture of the Mobility Air Forces’ capabilities. They will also compile lessons learned for areas that need improvement, post-exercise.