JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- The 62d Airlift Wing is participating in Gunfighter Flag 25-02, held by Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, from November 13-21, 2025. This exercise is a crucial preparatory event for Storm Flag 26-05, a full-scale Combat Readiness Inspection. Gunfighter Flag, hosted by the 366th Fighter Wing, is designed to assess and enhance Team McChord’s capabilities in a contested environment, refine skills, and validate procedures necessary for future operational success.
"Gunfighter Flag 25-02 is part of a larger wing exercise where we are rapidly deploying forces within 24 hours,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Bradley Wills, 4th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron commander during the exercise. “This involves generating forces at home station, processing them through a deployment line, including medical evaluations and out-processing, placing them in crew rest, and then simulating a deployment to a forward operating location. From there, we generate sorties as soon as we arrive. Operating out of unfamiliar locations helps us execute the mission without the comfort of our own squadrons.”
During the exercise, Team McChord conducted a range of activities, starting with establishing a deployment line to process personnel and equipment. Following deployment processing, Airmen executed cargo loading and simulated forward deployment to a forward operating base at various locations across the installation. C-17 Globemaster III aircrews then participated in integrated training scenarios with F-35A Lightning II and F-15E Strike Eagle fighter aircraft.
“We’re heading in there to two notional landing zones to drop off cargo, both vehicles and personnel,” said Capt. Maxwell Stangl, 4th EAS, mission planning cell chief. “While we’re doing that, we’re going to be vulnerable to simulated enemy fighters, so that’s where the friendly fighters will step up and fly overhead, essentially protecting us from those fighter threats. Our job is to get there as expeditiously and safely as possible, so they don’t have to stay on station.”
Injects, such as simulated power outages, or the inability to utilize phones, and being geographically separated from the other participating units, further tested Team McChord’s ability to maintain operational readiness.
"The biggest challenge is being separated from the other units participating at Mountain Home,” said Stangl. “They are all together in person, while we’re here trying to make contact remotely; we’re calling in, reaching out through Teams, emails, and webcams. Additionally, the fighter community uses different terminology, so it takes more time to develop a shared understanding. Over time, we’ve figured out, 'Oh, that's what they're saying or communicating.’”
Storm Flag 26-05 will evaluate Team McChord’s capabilities across multiple areas, including generating, employing, and sustaining personnel and cargo; maintaining wartime operational tempos; and conducting command and control. The inspection will also assess the wing’s ability to operate and maintain command and control in degraded or denied communication and cyberspace environments. The goal is to prepare for its Global Force Management Allocation Plan-tasked available phase and validate the Mission Generation Force Element. The Air Mobility Command Inspector General and Wing Inspection Teams will evaluate the exercise, focusing on Mission Essential Tasks, Contingency Tasking Group objectives, and the Ability to Survive and Operate in communication-degraded environments.
"This exercise takes a crawl, walk, run approach to rapid mobility and getting out the door in 24 hours,” said Wills. “We learned a lot in our deployment lines and getting through medical processing. We are going to take those lessons learned and find ways to speed up our processes. It's an education piece because there are always new people coming in, and we have to train them for these exercises to be ready to get out the door if needed.”
The 62d AW's participation in Gunfighter Flag 25-02 is intended to enhance readiness for Storm Flag 26-05, ensuring its ability to execute its mission effectively.