Fast-response exercise fine-tunes Airmen’s capabilities

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Morgan Lipinski
  • 128th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
128th Air Refueling Wing, Milw. --  Milwaukee—The 128th Air Refueling Wing, Wisconsin Air National Guard, conducted a generation exercise at General Mitchel Airfield November 4-5, 2017.

A generation is an aircraft training exercise that tests Airmen’s ability to respond to a mission tasking in a minimum amount of time. This exercise is planned to incorporate Air Force doctrine, protocol, and combat tactics in order to create a realistic scenario.

During the 128 ARW generation, Airmen fine-tuned their fast-reaction skills such as loading/unloading cargo, aircraft reconfiguration, security, and mobilization. While speed is important when performing these tasks, safety and accuracy are just as essential to the mission capability.

To measure these skills the wing assembled a Wing Inspection Team (WIT). The WIT is made up of more than 100 subject matter experts from across the installation that observe and inspect Airmen as they perform their tasks required for rapid aircraft generation. 

“The wing inspection team inspects the plans and programs that the Wing has to abide by during an exercise,” said Senior Master Sgt. Patrick Sosinski, a member of the 128 ARW WIT. “Our job is to make sure that [Airmen] are following the correct protocol when it comes to doing their job correctly and completing the mission. It’s all about being ready to do the mission… and we are!” 

Lt. Gen. L. Scott Rice, the director of the Air National Guard, recently when discussing the 21st century Guard Airman emphasized that readiness is a priority for every level of the chain of command and vital to the success of the Air National Guard. 

The Air National Guard must be ready to conduct operations around the world when called upon—protecting the American way of life continues to be the number one responsibility of the U.S. military, said Rice. The defense and air sovereignty of our homeland is primarily an Air National Guard mission.  

The 128 ARW is on guard 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and is equipped to respond to a broad range of aerial refueling missions. It is through continuous training, such as this generation exercise, that the 128 ARW remains always ready to defend the United States and its allies.