Photo By Staff Sgt. Brooks Fletcher | Airmen walk past the "Black Panther" sculpture, a tribute to their lineage, positioned...... read more read more
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By Spc. Brooks Fletcher
20th Public Affairs Detachment
EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska – In its fifteenth iteration, Northern Edge is Alaska's largest military training exercise. The exercise is held over a two-week period, involving components from the Army, Marine, Navy, and Air Force.
The joint-training exercise provides U.S. military branches with not only an environment to train for their real-world missions, but also the opportunity to combine their distinctive abilities to become a more lethal threat.
"I think (the training) is excellent," said Lt. Col. Scott McCreedy, assistant to the director of operations, 353rd Combat Training Squadron. "When training within your service, you only train with yourself. But for Northern Edge, we are here together training as a joint, cohesive unit."
The joint-training exercise involves everything from defensive counter and close air support to personnel recovery missions, all while integrating new weapon systems into the training.
"Each (service) has unique capabilities that they bring to the fight," McCreedy said in regards to Northern Edge's joint and diverse training climate. "It all becomes synergistic."
However, the finely tuned mechanics of Northern Edge does not come without proper planning and coordination.
The 'Black Panthers' of the 353rd CTS facilitate all aspects of Eielson's Northern Edge operations, doing their part in ensuring that the joint-training exercise helps prepare forces by practicing various interoperability, techniques and procedures.
"(353rd CTS) serves as subject-matter experts on air operations in this vicinity and help facilitate Northern Edge exercise," said Tech Sgt. Nathan "Deacon" Hoffman, joint terminal controller, 353rd CTS.
The operations division consists of airmen that specialize in jets, tankers, helicopters and weapon systems, as well as Army- and Navy-specific liaisons; while the range division of the 353rd CTS orchestrates and runs everything in conjunction with the various ranges throughout Alaska.
"The unit has the experts needed to put these different operations together," said McCreedy.
Through operation coordination, a crew of area-experts, along with the Alaska Command and Elmendorf Air Force Base; the 353rd CTS incorporates what they do as a training unit to ensure Northern Edge is a safe and successful joint-training exercise.
| Date Taken: | 05.15.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 05.16.2008 16:03 |
| Story ID: | 19482 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 207 |
| Downloads: | 90 |
This work, 'Black Panthers' Take Flight: 353RD Combat Training Squadron Support Northern Edge 2008, by SSG Brooks Fletcher, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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