Photo By Master Sgt. Rafael Rosa | U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Angel Jimenez, intel analyst craftsman, 156th Contingency...... read more read more
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ALPENA COMBAT READINESS TRAINING CENTER, Michigan — The 156th Contingency Response Group, Puerto Rico Air National Guard, participated in exercise Sentry North where they trained their rapid global mobility capabilities, refined joint interoperability, and sharpened their ability to establish and operate airfields in austere environments at Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, Michigan, May 31 - June 5, 2025.
CR Airmen were challenged to adapt and overcome contested, degraded, and operationally limited environments to better prepare to deter adversaries and modern-day threats. The training scenarios, conducted during the exercise were bare-base airfield setup, rapid airlift operations, perimeter defense, joint force coordination, and multi-domain communication operations environment while reacting to multiple injects ranging in complexity and magnitude.
“Sentry North provides a high-fidelity operational environment that increases combat readiness by validating our Airmen’s ability to deploy rapidly, integrate with joint forces, and execute the mission in complex scenarios," said U.S. Air Force Maj. Isaias Rivera, operations officer, 156th Contingency Response Group. “This reinforces our tactical proficiency and strategic adaptability, which are crucial to maintaining the credible deterrent posture emphasized by the Department of Defense.”
For this exercise, the 156th CRG partnered with the 182nd Airlift Wing, Illinois Air National Guard, to gain a contingency response mission set. Embedding 182nd AW Airmen with 156th CRG Airmen strengthened alliances between Guard units and allowed for the sharing of best practices, tactics and techniques while operating in a CR environment.
“The 156th CRG has proven their flexibility, speed, interoperability and their ability to adapt, which has been a great learning experience for our unit that recently acquired a CR mission, and is currently earning its CR qualifications,” said U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Justin Miller, airfield management specialist, 182nd Airlift Wing, Illinois Air National Guard. “With readiness in mind, we have conducted several joint RCR refreshers, which will help us build our courses back at our unit to be ready for future exercises; through our collaboration, we felt like both units were part of the same team.”
For one of the training planners, this training opportunity at Sentry North helped underscore the essential function the 156th CRG plays in extending U.S. airpower into austere and remote regions.
“The 156th CRG is essentially a quick response force that can enable air operations anywhere in the world, providing a capability that would allow our forces to reach and deter adversaries’ forces regardless of distance or type of environment,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Rafael Peña, logistics plans specialist, 156th CRG, and one of the training planners. “Our Airmen faced a range of physically and mentally demanding scenarios, including loss of communications, lone-wolf attacks, and surveillance by ground and unmanned system, but the most challenging was a simulated “bugout (a short notice evacuation) from the tactical operations center after a simulated targeted aerial attack, requiring them to erase sensitive data, secure communication equipment, and relocate over 200 meters with full gear to reestablish operations at an alternate site.”
Sentry North 2025 focused on operating in a contested environment with adversary aircraft, electronic jamming, and simulated surface-to-air threats, providing a premier joint training opportunity at Volk Field Air National Guard Base in Wisconsin and Alpena CRTC to ensure participating units are combat-ready and interoperable in operationally limited environments.
| Date Taken: | 06.08.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.08.2025 16:07 |
| Story ID: | 500008 |
| Location: | MICHIGAN, US |
| Web Views: | 50 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 156th CRG enhances combat readiness at Sentry North, by 1st Lt. Eliezer Soto, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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