621 CRW integrates with coalition forces during Mobility Guardian

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Robert Hicks
  • 621st Contingency Response Wing Public Affairs
MOSES LAKE, Wash. --  The 621st Contingency Response Wing Airmen are no strangers when it comes to working side-by-side with joint and international partners, whether it’s delivering humanitarian aid to people in need or transporting coalition forces to dirt strips in Iraq and Syria. 

The CRW Airmen integrated with service members from Australia, Belgium and Great Britain, in support of Air Mobility Command’s premier readiness exercise Mobility Guardian.

“Train like you fight,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Pat Rayner, 921st Contingency Response Squadron commander. “When we deploy to the theater, it is highly likely that we will be working hand-in-hand with our coalition partners. Training together provides the opportunity to learn each other’s strengths and limitations in a controlled environment rather than the area of responsibility.”

Throughout the exercise coalition forces worked together to load and offload cargo, as well as provide base defense and intelligence to support combat training in a realistic environment.

“Mobility Guardian has been a tremendous exercise, probably the best one since I joined the contingency response force in 2004,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Justin Niederer, 821st CRG commander and the senior airfield authority here. “This environment mirrors Iraq, Syria, and gives our younger Airmen the opportunity to integrate with coalition forces similar to our deployments earlier this year when we were working closely with Coalition/Joint Task Force-Inherent Resolve, which included several of our partner nations.”

Niederer has led several air base opening missions to include operations in Iraq and Romania. 

During the exercise, the evaluators put the team here to the test with simulated injects to include a hi-jacking, active shooters and a number of other scenarios to see how they would respond under pressure. 

“Obviously it’s tough to replicate the combat environment, but the landscape itself and the exercise control group’s security injects were definitely similar to what we encountered in Syria,” Rayner said.  “The Exercise injects forced leadership to rely upon intelligence reporting and security force posture in order to complete our mission.  Intel assesses the threat while our security forces provide threat mitigation. The leadership utilized this expertise to provide continuous secure and safe airfield operations.”

 The exercise is about strengthening partnerships, discovery, learning and improving together as an integrated team, according to Mobility Guardian officials. 

“The best part of this exercise was seeing the combined force perform in the field,” Niederer said. “We train for this mission, so when I see the teams excel in this challenging environment there is nothing more rewarding.” 

The contingency response groups in the CRW are self-sufficient and deploys with all personnel, equipment and supplies to execute the mission. 

 “I want Airmen to know they are crucial to mission success,” Rayner said. “Almost all CR positions are one-person deep. Each person must own their primary duty and not be afraid to step outside of it.  Those are the keys to mission success.”

Throughout the exercise the aerial port coalition team worked day and night to ensure mission success.

“Without the help of our coalition partners helping us with aerial port operations there’s no way we would have been able to move as much cargo as we did in the amount of time that we did it,” said Master Sgt. Mark Vis, 921st CRS port dawg. This exercise has proved to be a validation of our interoperability between U.S. Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force aerial port operations.”