Exercise Mobility Guardian 2019, Air Mobility Command’s premier large – scale mobility exercise created an environment from September 8-28, 2019, where Team Little Rock became Ready Warriors alongside joint and international partners to ensure they could deliver rapid global mobility now, and in the future.
Mobility Airmen from across the globe integrated at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, to continue the momentum of readiness by keeping their global, competitive edge through exercising in contested, degraded and operationally-limited environments.
“We got a lot of training objectives done, but the biggest thing was watching the individuals build relationships with international partners and other Mobility Airmen such as the tanker community and C-17 community,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Jonathan Esses, 41st Airlift Squadron director of operations. “In the future, when these Airmen run into each other in real-world scenarios, their communication and teamwork will be that much stronger.”
Approximately 250 pilots, loadmasters, aerial porters and maintenance Airmen from TLR participated in MG19 throughout the three-week exercise. Little Rock Air Force Base’s Ready Warriors were only one piece of the 4,000 Mobility Airman puzzle that formed MG19.
U.S. Army airborne paratroopers, riggers and field artillery personnel from across the nation, international allies from Australia, Canada, Chile, United Arab Emirates and many more countries around the world, added to the 4,000 - participant team which made up MG19.
“Practicing with our joint service and international allies lets us take advantage of our strengths, and notice the weaknesses to make the best strategic decision while enhancing the vital partnerships we rely on to accomplish the mission,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Shane Haughian, 19th Operations Group commander.
These participants exercised airdrops, aeromedical evacuations, contingency response and many more mobility missions. Not all members of TLR were training, some of them were performing assessments to ensure Mobility Airmen are always ready.
Members of the 34th Combat Training Squadron, along with their augmentees, arrived seven days before the exercise began, and stayed seven days after it ended to prepare the environment and injects for the incoming Airmen.
The 34th CTS Airmen’s role in MG19 was to observe, coach and train the Airmen as they performed the tasks required of them in a contested, austere environment. These observers, coaches and trainers also wrote assessments for senior leadership so the next MG can be improved further.
Not only are these assessments going to enhance future MG exercises, the knowledge gained by the participants will set a foundation for the 19th AW’s own biannual exercise — the ROCKI.
“Now we can really step it up for the crews who already have this experience,” Esses said. “With this baseline, we’ll be able to step up the enemy threat capability at the next ROCKI and exercise against it.”