1108th: Preparing For Take Off

Photo By Staff Sgt. Connie Jones | Lt. Col. Andrew Birmingham discusses the culminating training event with Col. Glen Flowers, commander of 1108th Aviation Group, Oct. 25, 2017, at Gulfport's Combat Readiness Training Center – Battlefield Airmen Center. The unit is preparing for an upcoming deployment and the CTE is the final evaluation of their readiness. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Connie Jones)  

GULFPORT, MS, UNITED STATES

10.25.2017

Story by Sgt. Connie Jones 

102d Public Affairs Detachment

GULFPORT, Miss.- 1108th Aviation Group conducted Task Force 21’s culminating training event October 25, 2017.

A culminating training event, or CTE, is an evaluation of a unit’s staff during mobilization to ensure they’re prepared to handle certain situations that may come about during the deployment, said Col. Glen Flowers, commander of the 1108th.

“A culminating training event brings together the staff to exercise scenarios that we’ll be required to perform on our missions downrange,” he said. “The deputy commander assembles the staff, provides the problem statement, and then we’ll work through several different staff scenarios.”

The unit was evaluated by the 1107th Aviation Group, based in Springfield, Missouri, which they will be replacing in Kuwait, said Flowers.

“There is representation here from the forward [aviation group], Task Force 20, which is the 1107th out of Missouri to facilitate the event,” he said.

They are also being assisted by 1109th Aviation Group, of Grouton, Connecticut, who will be following them into Kuwait once the unit’s tour is over.

“They completed our Aviation Operational Readiness Evaluation. There is a checklist requirement inspection. They come in, and the way the scenarios are driven, the next up [aviation group], which is the 1109th, out of Connecticut, completes that exercise,” he said.

What makes the mobilization of any aviation group unique is that instead of going to mobilize at a site after home station, the unit location is their “site,” said Flowers.

“We’re performing a home station mobilization versus deploying to a separate [mobilization] station,” said Flowers. “The reason for that is the mission tooling for an [aviation group] is fixed-based; it’s not something you could easily pick up and move. So, the event basically comes to us.”

The unit will go straight to their deployment location following their home station mobilization, Flowers said.

• Date Taken: 10.25.2017
• Date Posted: 10.28.2017 18:49
• Story ID: 253347
• Location: GULFPORT, MS, US
• Hometown: GULFPORT, MS, US
• Hometown: PASS CHRISTIAN, MS, US