Photo By Jerry Hewitt | Members of the 104th Fighter Wing attended the two-week Maple Thunder exercise from...... read more read more
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BARNES AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Massachusetts – Members of the 104th Fighter Wing attended the two-week Maple Thunder exercise from Jan. 28, 2024 to Feb. 2, 2024 in Savannah, Georgia. This exercise combined over 350 Airmen from six different states to train and evaluate their abilities to execute agile combat employment (ACE) from dispersed locations against a peer adversary.
The 104th FW provided the A-Staff (air staff) for 158th FW’s Air Expeditionary Wing (AEW), where they were responsible for providing an operational focus for both deliberate and crisis action planning at the wing level to help and facilitate the wing commander’s decision making.
“The 104th FW was tasked with providing command-and-control for this exercise as part of a new element in how the Air Force organizes the force,” said Lt. Col. Ryan Randall, 104th FW A-Staff chief of staff and 104th Mission Support Group commander . “For this exercise, our role as the A-Staff was to support the AEW Commander and the Air Base Squadron (ABS) by acting as the liaison between them and leadership, and then provide them with anything they need to help execute the mission.”
The 104th FW had operated in garrison for several months prior to the Maple Thunder exercise, making this the A-Staff’s first experience in supporting expeditionary operations. During the exercise, the 104th FW found effective ways to work through the challenges of establishing clear lines of communication as well as understanding the differences between line and staff functions.
“The exercise was successful, but not without limitations,” said Randall. One area for improvement we identified is the need advanced coordination between the A-Staff and the AEW, which would help enable the A-Staff to communicate more effectively with the aircraft they’re supporting.”
Senior Master Sergeant Kristin Martin, 104th FW Communications Flight operations superintendent, was also in attendance for the Maple Thunder, and described how some of the most difficult challenges during the exercise led to future opportunities for growth and increased comradery.
“The exercise gave us an opportunity to collaborate with other units in a simulated environment to gather valuable knowledge of what worked and what we need to reassess for planning,” said Martin. “In my 24 years in the Air National Guard, I had never experienced this type of exercise. The long days and stressful situations really gave me an appreciation for the teammates I was lucky enough to work with.”
Randall further explained the intent of the exercise through how the Air Force can utilize this data for future, real-life applications. “We realized that there’s a lot of training that is needed for an A-Staff to provide that command-and-control element in an expeditionary environment, and this exercise now enables us to go back and look at what the A-Staff is being tasked with, refine our processes internally, and provide that information to the rest of the guard.
| Date Taken: | 02.16.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 02.22.2024 11:29 |
| Story ID: | 464134 |
| Location: | WESTFIELD, MA, US |
| Web Views: | 128 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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