JBLM kicks off exercise Mobility Guardian

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt Divine Cox
  • 62nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs

Exercise Mobility Guardian, Air Mobility Command’s premier readiness exercise, kicked off at Joint Base Lewis-McChord July 30 and will continue through Aug. 11.

Mobility Guardian is an international combat flying operations exercise designed to develop and improve tactics, techniques and procedures that enhance air mobility operations and improve interoperability.

“Mobility Guardian provides us an opportunity to “train like we fight” alongside our joint and international partners,” said Lt. Col. Daniel DeYoung, JBLM Mobility Guardian director. “It is a completely new exercise meant to enhance mobility partnerships and test the full spectrum of capabilities Air Mobility Command provides the nation.”

Exercise MG replaced the annual Air Mobility Rodeo competition that last took place in 2011.

“Whereas Rodeo incentivized units to take their best performers from across the Air Force Specialty Code spectrum—operators, maintainers, medical and support Airmen—and give them extra “top-off” training to prepare for the competition, Mobility Guardian participants will by design be the “average” Airman, who will be tested to employ his or her skills to accomplish the mission laid out in the exercise scenario,” said DeYoung.

The exercise training scenario features joint forcible entry and airfield seizure, and a joint mission between Air Force airdrop crews and Army Airborne units which will take place at locations across Washington State. It will also incorporate contingency response and humanitarian relief operations to include aeromedical evacuation efforts.

“Exercise MG gives AMC an excellent venue to evaluate how well our training has prepared members to date, while simultaneously providing a training opportunity to improve our ability to plan, command and control, communicate, and execute the mission,” said DeYoung. “Mobility Guardian will more than quadruple the number of missions flown in typical past Rodeos, increasing both the quantity and quality of training.”

More than 3,000 participants from U.S. Air Force, Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard, joint and international partners will participate in the most realistic mobility training in a dynamic environment focusing on all four AMC core competencies: airlift, air refueling, aeromedical evacuation and air mobility support.

“Exercises like these offer an opportunity to learn and evolve as a force,” said DeYoung. “With mission readiness as the ultimate training objective, MG was designed to sharpen Airmen’s skills in support of combatant commander requirements.

Unmatched rapid global mobility exists because of the ready and resilient Airmen who execute the mission day in and day out. Training exercises such as Mobility Guardian are critically important to ensuring the readiness of Airmen today and tomorrow.”