512th Airlift Control Flight participates in Maple Flag Exercise

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Joe Simms
  • 22nd Air Force Public Affairs
COLD LAKE AIR BASE ALBERTA, CANADA --  Members of the 512th Airlift Control Flight, Dover Air Force Base, Del., participated in Maple Flag Exercise 42, held at Cold Lake Air Base Alberta, Canada, from May 29 - June 14.

The 512th Contingency Response Element included members from the 439th ALCF from Westover Air Reserve Base Westover, Mass., 94th ALCF Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga., and the 46th Aerial Port Squadron also from Dover AFB.

The 512th CRE provided air mobility operational support alongside Canadian forces while accomplishing currency and qualification training in a deployed environment.

"There is a real synergistic effect when you see how folks operate differently and still get the mission done, " said Capt. Cliff Cunningham, 512th Contingency Response Element Commander, about working with the Canadians. "We will integrate the good ideas and experiences while we're out here and that will help make us a more effective unit."

After arriving in country and sending out the initial situation report, the members of the 512th CRE hit the ground running. The first day was spent setting up communications to provide command and control for transient cargo and air refueling aircraft while the CRE loadmasters and aerial porters, with the support of the Canadian Air Force, processed three C-130s and three KC-10s.

When deployed, an ALCF is considered a CRE.

At home station an ALCF consists of rated and non rated officers, airfield managers, C2 specialists, personnelists, loadmasters and air refueling specialists, along with various communications and power production specialties. When deployed, other agencies such as intelligence, weather, aircraft maintenance, aerial port, security forces, and contracting may provide contingency support elements to the CRE package depending upon the specific mission.

The limited size of an ALCF and the unique mission of the CRE often requires members to be proficient in their career field while also being capable of performing tasks that aren't in their area of expertise.

The operations function of the 512th CRE also used their time at Cold Lake as an opportunity to train three of its newest members. Staff Sgt. Jonathan Concepcion, Tech. Sgt. Julitssa Ortiz and Senior Master Sgt. Brad Ferguson deployed with the CRE to receive their evaluation in mobile C2.

Sergeant Ortiz, an airfield manager with nine years active-duty experience, recently returned from Keesler Air Force Base, Biloxi, Miss. where she completed command post training. The school assignment broadened her knowledge and her dual qualification will be an invaluable asset to the ALCF.

"Airfield Management and command post do a lot of the same functions in an ALCF so we decided it would be a good idea to get the command and control designation for the experience," Sergeant Ortiz said. "And it has helped, I had no idea what G2 (Global Decision Support System 2) was before."

G2 is a C2 system which provides mission planning, scheduling and tracking of mobility airlift and air refueling missions.

In addition to certification training and supporting the CAF, the 512th CRE was able to provide a service for the 4 Wing Operations Group. Senior Master Sgt. Paul Veresko, an airfield management specialist from the 439th ALCF, added the requirement for completion of an airfield survey into the certification training.

The survey gathered information about the airfield including runway and taxi way dimensions and local frequencies. The results from the survey were given to the 4 Wing Operations Squadron and updated in the Air Mobility Command database for future air mobility operations at Cold Lake AB. 

Exercise Maple Flag is an international air combat exercise held at 4 Wing Cold Lake AB with participants and observers coming from all parts of the world. This year's exercise featured flying squadrons from The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Singapore and the United States. Observing units included the members of the Air Forces from United Arab Emirates, Qatar, South Korea, Chile, South Africa, Ukraine, Poland and Egypt.