By Senior Airman Courtney Sebastianelli

23rd Wing Public Affairs

MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. (AFNS) —  

The 347th Operations Support Squadron at Moody Air Force Base partnered with U.S. Coast Guard Station Mayport, Florida, Nov. 17, for a simulated water rescue of a downed pilot during exercise Mosaic Tiger 24-1.

Bad weather off the coast of Jacksonville and Saint Johns River stopped the actual exercise rescue from happening, but the relationship built during the planning process will help future joint operations between the two services.

“As we train, we can’t be singular in our approach,” said Air Force Tech. Sgt. Michael Mendes, 347th OSS group weapons and tactics load master. “We have to work together to seamlessly merge, and since our HH-60Ws [Jolly Green II] don’t get maritime training as often, it was a valuable experience for our Airmen to integrate with another branch.

Training with the Coast Guard allowed us to test and improve our proficiency in how we communicate and respond to maritime rescues.”

Moody AFB rescue Airmen used the Mosaic Tiger readiness exercise as a way to get ready for future real-world deployment cycles. During the week, they worked with three different Coast Guard Stations: Mayport, St. Petersburg and Cape Canaveral each provided safety boats, simulated hoist operations and the personnel in the water.

When life or death is at stake, especially for an over-water rescue, understanding joint team concepts ensures service members at every level can seamlessly integrate to move quickly and efficiently. Joint commanders can then leverage the unique capabilities of each branch to choose the right rescue package and save lives.

According to the Air Force guide titled The Joint Team, or the Purple Book, joint integration requires effective coordination among the military branches. The guide outlines how U.S. forces are required by national command authorities to respond on short notice to unpredictable crises in a joint force capacity.

Despite weather interference, the Air Force and Coast Guard were able to train for just that purpose.

“This training opportunity benefits both sides by giving our respective crews new encounters with environments and capabilities,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Tim Mathis, USCG STA Mayport unit supervisor. “Complacency can be the divider between failure and success, and exposing search-and-rescue resources to fresh scenarios deepens the well to draw from when the call comes in real time.”

The search-and-rescue community is a tight-knit group of professionals, regardless of their branch of service. During the remainder of the day, Airmen and Coast Guardsmen worked to establish effective communication practices and demonstrate joint team integration when faced with real-time situations.

Mendes said mission success depends on how well integrated forces can merge to streamline communication and overcome differences in execution methods. There is overlap between the Air Force’s search and rescue mission and the Coast Guard’s commitment to ensuring maritime safety—both of which came together to produce an effective outcome during a rescue need.

“We benefit from working with the Air Force by working through a different set of scenarios that we may not usually see or expect,” Mathis said. “This promotes real-time risk assessment and evaluation that is essential to growing as first responders. The opportunity to develop a universal standard or response cannot be understated as more resources are available to respond in any given situation.”

KUNSAN AIR BASE, South Korea —  

During the combined flying training event known as Vigilant Defense 24, more than 25 various types of fighters, cargo, tanker and reconnaissance aircraft from the U.S., South Korea and Royal Australian Air Force are conducting flight operations from South Korea and U.S. bases across the peninsula Oct. 30 – Nov. 3.

Vigilant Defense is designed to enhance combined training and to ensure Airmen remain safe in the sky and on the ground by air traffic controllers like U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Paul Gary, 8th Operations Support Squadron air traffic controller senior watch supervisor.

“As air traffic controllers, we have to be proficient at coordinating all airframes from fighter to cargo, military or civilian,” Gary said. “We’re always prepared for whatever may come our way, including an increase in air traffic operations during a contingency operation because for us it would be nothing more than practicing how we play.”

The center component of Kunsan Air Base’s three-part mission is to “Accept Follow-on Forces” and during a contingency operation, ATC’s ability to coordinate increased flight operations is vital to ensuring efficient and safe reception of those forces.

“I think it is important for Airmen to step away from exercises like this with the ability to remain flexible in situations that take you outside of your comfort zone. You may have to adapt and follow someone else’s lead in a dynamic situation, and doing so could be the difference in saving or losing lives while coordinating aircraft.”

U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Paul Gary, 8th Operations Support Squadron Air Traffic Controller Senior Watch Supervisor

Controllers provide pilots with their flight and landing information along with weather reports all while deconflicting landing and air space congestion within their zone of responsibility. Gary explains how working together is essential to performing ATC operations.

“Building teams is particularly important,” Gary said. “The person on your left and right needs to be on the same page as you.”

Combat flying training events are regularly scheduled training events designed to enhance the readiness of U.S. and South Korea forces and sustain capabilities, which strengthen the South Korea-U.S. alliance.

By TSgt Emili Koonce, 8th Fighter Wing Public Affairs

Photos by SSgt Samuel Earick

MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. (AFNS) — Large-scale military exercises across all branches focus heavily on integration with allies and partners as a cornerstone of the National Defense and National Security strategies. While seamless execution of this integration can pose a challenge when differences in language and culture are present, the Air Force Culture and Language Center offers a solution to overcome those barriers — the Language Enabled Airman Program.

A recent article in defense trade publication highlighted the cultural and language challenges U.S. Air Force leaders faced during exercise Northern Edge 2. U.S. Air Force pilots worked with their Japanese and French pilot counterparts during this exercise to demonstrate the concept of agile combat employment, which relies on working with allies and partners in the region for success. Exercise leaders emphasized the need to overcome language barriers before they could effectively accomplish the mission.

While focus is often placed on the tactical process of working side by side with ally and partner nations, many military leaders now recognize the critical importance of having cultural and language understanding along with technical expertise for true integration.

“The Department of the Air Force seeks to strengthen international relationships and work with our partners to build shared air and space capabilities and capacity, but we can’t stay connected and continue to strengthen relationships with our allies and partners if we don’t understand them,” Brig. Gen. William Freeman, Air War College commandant, said during a recent Facebook live event. “We need Airmen with language, regional expertise and culture skills to accomplish this.”

That’s where LEAP comes in. The program serves as a force multiplier throughout the Department of Defense with a bench of more than 3,400 multi-capable, language-enabled Airmen who have proficiencies in language, regional expertise and culture across 97 strategic languages.

LEAP scholars are ready to deploy, at a moment’s notice, with the language, culture and technical skills needed in diverse environments to strengthen strategic connections with partners and allies and enable agile combat employment, or ACE.

“Language, regional expertise and culture skills are an enabler of ACE because it’s the only path to the type of integration that produces dominance in operational tempo when we’re working with our partners and allies,” said Howard Ward AFCLC director. “To defeat the strategy of our adversaries, our operational output as a team must be greater than the sum of the parts. LREC skills, in the hands of a force integrated by design with partners and allies, are required to produce that level of winning capability.”

Recently, LEAP scholars have supported several large-scale missions in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command region across all branches of service to help advance a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” as instructed in the Department of Defense Indo-Pacific Strategy.

Gen. Mike Minihan, commander of Air Mobility Command, utilized LEAP scholars to enhance understanding and integration with partners and allies during the command’s largest-ever full-spectrum readiness exercise, Mobility Guardian 23.

“Mobility Guardian 23 focused heavily on enabling ACE with our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific, which cannot happen if we don’t understand each other. Having LEAP scholars in the mix during the exercise helped us take integration and understanding to a new level to lay the groundwork for a fortified, integrated and agile joint team ready to fight and win against our adversaries,” he said.

Cope North is another large-scale annual exercise held in the Indo-Pacific region where LEAP scholars played a key role in facilitating partnership building for the Air Force. Cope North 23 was a multilateral field training exercise focused on integration of large-force employment, ACE and humanitarian and disaster relief training. During this event, two Japanese LEAP scholars worked alongside Air Force airfield experts to facilitate an exchange of skills with the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and Royal Australian Air Force partners.

“Having support from language-enabled Airmen for this event is invaluable and vital for mission success. Cope North is historically the number one or two highest priorities in Pacific Air Forces out of roughly 47 annual exercises, and the linguist support enabled the Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force to further interoperability with our Japan Air Self-Defense Force allies,” Cope North lead planner Lt. Col. David Overstreet said.

During Kamandag 6, a large-scale Marine Corps exercise held in the Philippines, LEAP scholars provided critical culture and language support along with their technical expertise from their career fields to completely transform the way servicemembers connected by bridging language and cultural gaps to strengthen the strategic bond between the two nations.

Brig. Gen. Jimmy Larida, Philippine Marine Corps, 3rd Marine Brigade, commanding general, emphasized the positive impact LEAP scholar support had on this exercise.

 “In the 34 times that I have performed exercises with the U.S. Marine Corps, this is the first time that they’ve attached [LEAP] linguists — linguists who are truly one of us. And it has made a huge difference. My Marines trust them, and my Marines are drawn to them. This needs to happen, every single time from here on out,” he said.

 Marine Corps Col. Thomas Siverts, commander, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit/Marine Rotational Force-Southeast Asia, also highlighted the critical importance of LEAP support to the success of Kamandag 6.

 “The LEAP team enabled us to quickly establish trust with the 3rd Marine Brigade, and they facilitated an exceptional environment where both forces could learn from each other using our native languages,” he said. “The result was a great exercise that developed relationships, trust and interoperability at an unmatched pace. I will never do another bi-lateral exercise without requesting the language and cultural expertise that LEAP was able to provide.”

All DOD and intergovernmental agencies can utilize LEAP scholars for interpretation and translation support in exercises, conferences and other missions. To request LEAP scholar support, visit the Air Force Culture and Language Center website and select the Training Partnership Request option in the sidebar menu.

Story by Mikala McCurry

Air Force Culture and Language Center Outreach Team

Photo by Airman 1st Class Spencer Perkins