FT. STEWART, GEORGIA – Airmen from the 621st Mobility Support Operations Squadron gathered for joint operations training at Ft. Stewart, Georgia, April 13-17, 2026.
The 621 MSOS Summit – an annual week-long, multidomain training environment – brought together more than 50 contingency response specialists comprised of both Air Mobility Liaison Officers, AMLOs, and Expeditionary Air Ground Liaison Elements, EAGLEs.
“This summit is essential because it’s the only time the unit gets aligned as a whole,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Shane McAlhaney, 621 MSOS Air Mobility Liaison Officer and Summit coordinator. “With EAGLEs and AMLOs spread across two dozen locations, everyone is executing the same mission but often develops their own way of doing things. Bringing everyone together once a year ensures we’re aligned in how we communicate, employ equipment, and approach the mission.”
Unique communication equipment familiarization, cargo preparation, landing zone and drop zone operations, and forklift training were just some of the summit’s focus areas. Additionally, drone operations were incorporated into the curriculum as a growing capability the unit is beginning to maximize to its full potential.
“Drones provide a variety of benefits we are only now beginning to fully unlock, especially when paired with analytics software,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Daniel Pool, 621 MSOS Air Mobility Liaison Officer. “We can automate and speed up portions of runway safety assessments which allows us to get the airfield operational faster than our current manual methods.”
Pool added that drones can also provide weather data, focus on operational blind spots and help search for potential threats along the airfield perimeter.
The EAGLEs are the enlisted side of the house and primarily located at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., while the AMLOs represent the officers who are fully embedded with Joint units at 24 different locations across the globe.
“Each of our AMLO operating locations executes a mission tailored to the supported user whether it is Army, Marine or Navy,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. William Staley, 621 MSOS commander. “This means that some AMLOs get specialized in their support of their user while their other skills atrophy… this event provides an opportunity to rebalance so they can execute anytime, anywhere.”
Considered the nation’s ‘Joint Air Mobility Enablers,’ the 621 MSOS is tasked with integrating critical command and control, logistics, and air mobility support, enabling rapid global force projection of Joint Force operations and providing Combatant Commanders with a comprehensive operational picture.
“Events like these bring awareness to our Airmen on the global and joint impact their mission has,” Staley explained. “It’s easy to go ‘heads down’ and focus on the mission but these events, and the engagements with senior leaders, allow us to shift our focus and see how our mission plays into the global scheme of maneuver.”