Phoenix Readiness training ends

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Christin Michaud
  • 305th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
FORT DIX, N.J. (AFPN) --  Air Mobility Command’s Phoenix Readiness combat training has ended and will be replaced in October by the Air Force's expeditionary combat-support training program, Eagle Flag.

The training cadre at the Air Mobility Warfare Center here are excited about Eagle Flag.

“It's exciting for us to be evolving into a flag-level school,” said Lt. Col. Michael Dickey, 421st Training Squadron commander who is in charge of the course. “It means taking our world-class training up a notch and helping the Air Force improve its expeditionary capabilities.”

Phoenix Readiness was a two-week training course that prepared airmen and other Department of Defense forces to open and establish forward-operating bases similar to what was recently done in Southwest Asia. That mission will not change.

"We will continue to lead the way, preparing the Air Force for expeditionary operations,” said Dickey. “But now to a much broader student base -- the entire Air Force."

During the final Phoenix Readiness course, more than 350 servicemembers deployed to the fictitious country of Yekrut -- also known as Naval Air Station Lakehurst -- to support U.S. peacekeeping efforts for the fictitious Osland government.

During their first week, students from more than 24 Air Force specialties received classroom and field training in bare-base common core tasks for their specialties in a deployed environment. The next week, their skills were tested an exercise deployment.

That was one of the advantages of the Phoenix Readiness course -- the opportunity to receive training and then apply it in the field the following week.

First Lt. Lt. Allan Rich, from the 821st Air Mobility Squadron at McGuire Air Force Base, N.J., attended the course two years ago and then again recently after returning from Iraq.

"The course has improved 600 percent since the last time I came," he said. "They've done a good job of trying to equate it to (the) real world. I'm very impressed with the differences, and it’s only going to get better with Eagle Flag." (Courtesy of AMC News Service)