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JOINT BASE ANDERSON, Guam – F-16 Fighting Falcons from the D.C. Air National Guard
shot through the pacific airspace during exercise Resolute Force Pacific (REFORPAC) July 10 - August 8, 2025, as part of the Department of the Air Force’s Department-Level Exercise (DLE) series. Several units from the D.C. Air National Guard accompanied the jets to provide support during the exercise, integrating seamlessly with the active duty personnel on base, as well as multinational and joint partners.
U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Arthur Nash, electrical and environmental specialist with the D.C. Air National Guard, highlighted how the exercise was an opportunity for the guard and active duty to share best practices and educate each other.
“We integrated with the active duty team uniquely because we were able to use their backshop to work on our support equipment,” said Nash. “It was also the first time our total force integration staff deployed with our guard members, which allowed us to assess how they work together.”
U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Stephen Cote, electrical and environmental specialist with the D.C. Air National Guard, is a traditional guardsman who deployed for the exercise. In his full-time capacity, he works for an Army Test Center in Maryland.
“The skillset I use there translates well with my role here, so I'm still staying fresh on the techniques and I'm bringing a wealth of troubleshooting qualities to both of my careers,” said Cote.
For Cote, joining the guard empowered him to switch careers and opened up the door for his current role outside of the military.
“In terms of working with our active duty counterparts, they have strength in executing maintenance instructions, but our typically extended experience of working on the same aircraft provides a vast amount of institutional knowledge,” said Cote. “In addition to knowing how to follow regular troubleshooting steps, guard members who have been with the unit for 10 or more years may have seen these persistent problems before, and can provide our unique insights during an exercise with a lot of moving parts.”
“Us joining in on these exercises together, getting everybody involved on very full runways like this is helpful for us as it could be the potential for the future,” said Cote. “You can't expect to always work on your home flight line. Knowing that and being able to come out to different bases and different territories to work together is very beneficial.”
U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jason Westerfield, an aircraft armament systems specialist with the D.C. Air National Guard, also participated in the exercise and has a full-time career outside of the military.
“I am a transit bus mechanic for the DC Metro system,” said Westerfield. “This is a similar skillset that I use in the guard, so I can bring my mechanical background to this to help more junior members who are still new to this technical realm.”
“We are the subject matter experts on our airframe so we can share our experiences with active duty,” said Westerfield. “We also coordinated with active duty to provide us with necessary materials that we were not able to bring over from home base, so it was a mutually beneficial relationship.”
The exercise was designed to be a challenge for all members involved when working under stressful conditions across all fields, from flightline operations to refueling, logistics and munitions loading.
“Overall, we were able to put up the numbers with flight hours, no matter what the mission was,” said Cote.
The pressure of a high demand environment allowed all participants to identify areas for growth, and a path ahead to continuous improvement, which was valuable information that could not have been so easily seen without exercises such as these. The lessons learned continue to strengthen the D.C. Air National Guard as they support partners and other components of the military in the future.
| Date Taken: | 07.31.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.21.2025 07:37 |
| Story ID: | 545989 |
| Location: | GU |
| Web Views: | 17 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, D.C. Air National Guard showcases Total Force integration during REFORPAC exercise, by SSgt Natalie Filzen, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
