Photo By Senior Airman Ty Pilgrim | U.S. Air Force Airmen assigned to the 1st Special Operations Munitions Squadron carry...... read more read more
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A U.S. Air Force MC-130J Commando II landed on a secluded runway, surrounded by an open, barren field. With aircraft engines still running, crews onboard hurried to begin offloading 12,600 pounds of munitions and equipment.
The mission: rearming two AC-130J Ghostrider gunships and one F-15 Eagle - and doing it as quickly as possible.
Just as soon as the crews offloaded the supplies, the MC-130J took off from the field, leaving the group to execute their task.
While the scenario would typically be more common in a deployed environment - this happened at Auxiliary Field 6, an airfield located roughly 30 miles from Hurlburt Field, Florida.
Members of the 1st Special Operations Munitions Squadron assigned to Hurlburt Field went on to work into nightfall, preparing ammo to arm the pair of gunships and F-15.
“We were moving fast and working together to hand-lift bombs that weigh hundreds of pounds each,” said Senior Airman Anthony Pezzello, a 1 SOMUNS munitions specialist.
The training event, held earlier this month, took place as part of a two-week Combat Munitions Training Program for the 1 SOMUNS.
For Pezzello and the crew of 11 munitions specialists, the training simulated a realistic and high-speed scenario.
“It felt exactly like a deployment,” Pezzello added. “The speed, the tempo…everything made it feel like it was real-world.”
In addition to offloading and preparing the ammunition at Auxiliary Field 6, the ammo troops participated in a briefing prior to the event and loaded the supplies at Hurlburt Field earlier that day.
In the two weeks leading up to the training event, members of the 1 SOMUNS also participated in courses focused on munitions academics and munitions readiness training modules.
Tech. Sgt. Daniel Lamb, 1 SOMUNS munitions training section chief, explained that the program focused on applying Agile Combat Employment (ACE) capabilities. An Air Force priority, ACE is an operational scheme of maneuver executed within threat timelines to increase survivability while generating combat power.
For ammo troops, applying ACE concepts involves being trained to perform a variety of functions within the munitions career field and being able to work with various airframes and munitions systems.
“We want to be ready for the next high-end fight,” Lamb said. “We need to be able to send munitions troops anywhere to work on any platform.”
While other munitions squadrons across the Air Force are implementing the classroom-based Combat Munitions Training Program, the ACE training event held by the 1 SOMUNS is a first of its kind, Lamb noted.
The event allows Airmen to implement everything they learn in the two-week course - from loading pallets with equipment to loading the aircraft, landing in an austere location, offloading and producing munitions in a timely manner.
Along with benefiting munitions troops, the hands-on training is also helpful for increasing interoperability with aircrews, said 1 SOMUNS Commander Lt. Col. Russell Williams.
“We have a real opportunity to build a capability that could prove highly valuable in a high-end fight, and that is precisely what we are working toward,” Williams said.
| Date Taken: | 04.18.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 04.19.2024 10:44 |
| Story ID: | 468898 |
| Location: | HURLBURT FIELD, FL, US |
| Web Views: | 171 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, (ACE)ing Ammo: 1 SOMUNS trains for future fight, by SrA Natalie Fiorilli, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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