Practicing Rapid Global Mobility

The 621st Contingency Response Wing recently trained with the 305th Air Mobility Wing, the 87th Air Base Wing, and the 514th Air Mobility Wing, all from JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., in an exercise called Crisis Response 03-16. During the March 5 week-long exercise, airmen and C-17s deployed to Gulfport, Miss., to practice generating, launching, and recovering aircraft. “This is about rapid global mobility excellence,” said Lt. Col. Dan Lang, 305th AMW Aircraft Maintenance Squadron commander, in a release. “Not just providing it out of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, but proving that we can pick up and do it from anywhere.” During the exercise, leadership worked to get as many young airmen involved to be ready for real-life contingency response missions, such as delivering aid to West Africa earlier this year. “You can say ‘I want my best people on this,’ and you already know what the results will be,” said Lt. Col. Michele Lobianco, commander of the 305th Air Mobility Operations Support Squadron, in the release. “But what does that accomplish? I want to know how can we get more experience for these younger folks that will be out the door on real deployments in a few months.”