The defense of our nation is often a cooperative effort among its military branches. To fight together, however, requires training together.
That’s just what members of the 184th Wing Security Forces Squadron accomplished June 1-2 in cooperation with active-duty Airmen from the 22nd Air Refueling Wing’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team and Soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 111th Aviation MEDEVAC unit.
“What we’ve been doing leading up to this event is training at home station, preparing the Airmen for air base defense skills that they may need in a contingency location if that were to occur,” said Senior Master Sgt. Dale Brooks, 184th SFS. “Here, we’ve been putting all those skills together in one package to train all those skills sets throughout the day.”
“We’re out here training for any type of mission we might have,” said Tech. Sgt. John Morphis, 184th SFS. “Today, we woke up at three in the morning. We had to get ready within a certain amount of time, get mounted up, get our warning order and then we started the day at four o’clock and stepped to our mission.”
The Security Forces relied on the Army Guard and active duty Air Force to supply the skills and assets they lacked.
“One of the things they reached out to the Army side was to conduct aeromedical evacuation training for their Airmen in the event they run into a situation which requires one of their Airmen to be transported for a medical emergency,” said Maj. Clarence “CJ” Schreiber, commander, Company G, 1st Battalion, 111th Aviation MEDEVAC.
"Our mission was to assist the security elements in support of explosive hazards,” said Senior Airman Andrew Lillard, 22nd Air Refueling Wing, “whether that be standard military ordnance or improvised devices during all areas of operations.”
“Our range partners at both the Kansas Training Center and Smoky Hill Air National Guard Range were critical to the success of the event,” said Col. Joe Dessenberger, commander of the 184th Mission Support Group, Kansas Air National Guard. “Their cooperation allowed us to use a large footprint on either side of the range complex and bed down at the training site. All three joint partners were able to accomplish significant blocks of training that are required each year to both grow individuals in their respective career fields and provide documented events for readiness reporting upward to the Department of Defense.”
Schreiber hopes such joint training opportunities will become a regular event in the Kansas National Guard.
“Joint training is something we should capitalize on and build more toward.”