First Eagle Flag exercise begins

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Paul Fazzini
  • Air Mobility Command Public Affairs
NAVAL AIR ENGINEERING STATION LAKEHURST, N.J. (AFPN) --  More than 150 expeditionary combat-support leaders from around the Air Force arrived here Oct. 13 for the inaugural Eagle Flag, the Air Force’s newest flag-level exercise.

The goal of the exercise is to test the ability of the participants to open and establish an air base to an initial operating capability for a forward operation, regardless of mission or aircraft type. The Air Mobility Warfare Center’s 421st Training Squadron, located at Fort Dix, N.J., is the lead agency for conducting the exercise.

“We’re excited about the kickoff of Eagle Flag and even more so about how this exercise will bring together approximately 400 expeditionary combat-support leaders from around the Air Force to rehearse the force-module concept they may be called to employ in the future,” said Col. Joan Cunningham, special assistant to the commander of the center for Eagle Flag.

A force module is a grouping of combat-support forces and the accompanying equipment and supplies necessary to sustain them for at least 30 days.

Cunningham’s cadre of more than 130 readiness professionals have planned for several months to make the exercise as realistic as possible.

The participating leaders, who are all in their air and space expeditionary force spin-up window, were called to deploy to Eagle Flag by AEF Center officials at Langley Air Force Base, Va., the same way they would for a real-world deployment.

According to Cunningham, Eagle Flag participants will arrive at different times throughout the 12-day exercise. This puts into action the ECS force-module concept, she said.

About 30 participants, designated the key and essential leaders, including the exercise deployment commander, Col. Lisa Firmin, commander of the 27th Mission Support Group at Cannon AFB, N.M., were among the first to arrive. They began initial operation planning.

Firmin’s goal for the exercise is simple.

“I hope to validate the concept of Eagle Flag and demonstrate just how valuable and vital expeditionary combat support is to the Air Force mission,” she said. “This will be the most realistic training (exercise participants) will receive, apart from an actual deployment.

“There will be people assigned to role play at Eagle Flag, playing the parts of media, terrorists and local residents,” Firmin said. “The people playing these roles are very good and very realistic, and they will provide great situations to see how our people react.”

As part of the exercise, an eight-person assessment team will arrive Oct. 14 to determine what repairs or upgrades the exercise site will require in order to make it operational as a U.S. Air Force forward-operating base.

While the assessment team continues its work, the first of three force modules will arrive. In an actual deployment, the key and essential leaders and the assessment team would all be part of Force Module 1. And, in an actual deployment there would be five force modules tasked. During Eagle Flag, only three are.

Module 1 consists of people from aerial port, contracting, fuels, medical, security forces, special tactics and supply, to name a few, along with the respective equipment required to open the air base.

Module 2 consists of civil engineers, logistics planners, personnel specialists and public affairs professionals. These airmen will provide support to the deployed commander during the “command and control” module phase of the operation.

Module 3, the “establish the air base" module, consists of people who will help expand the base’s infrastructure. Chaplains, communications, safety, services, weather and others fall into this module.

Exercise planners focused Eagle Flag scenarios on those that will affect only the first three force modules, where the participants get the new air base to the point where it can receive and generate mission-capable forces.

In an actual deployment, the fourth and fifth modules would focus on generating the mission and operating the air base. According to Cunningham, while these modules are not rehearsed during Eagle Flag, it is important to note they are the ones that project the sustainment aspects of the newly established air base.

According to planners, Lakehurst is a good fit for this inaugural exercise, especially because its hangar, runway and drop-zone capabilities, as well as available real estate, provide a realistic deployment experience for the participants.

Participants will spend their first night in one of the base’s hangars. On day two of the exercise, Module 1 will move all its gear and support equipment from a marshalling yard to the exercise field area. This simulates what the airmen would be doing once they hit the ground in a real deployment.

Other scenarios created by 421st TRS instructors will challenge many of the participants’ survival and operating skills, and duty and deployment skills. Scenarios will also test their flexibility to the limitations in the new environment.

“Some of the scenarios will even apply lessons learned from operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom,” Cunningham said.

The exercise is expected to end Oct. 22 when Firmin turns over the “keys” to the base’s air expeditionary wing commander, thus informing the new commander the base is ready to generate missions.

The Air Force has scheduled eight Eagle Flag exercises for fiscal 2004, with the next one set to begin in January.