100th ARW exercise tests 24-hour operations

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. David Dobrydney
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
The 100th Air Refueling Wing held an intensive exercise February 26-28 to test readiness and measure responses.

The main focus of the exercise was to demonstrate our Airmen’s ability to quickly mobilize an entire wing and prepare to launch KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft in response to an international incident.

“This exercise in particular was not meant to test only our Operations Group, or only our Maintenance Group, or our Mission support Group,” said Lt. Col. Mark Skalko, 100th ARW inspector general, “it was designed to test each and every Airman on this base, military or civilian, as each person plays a vital role in making the mission happen here at RAF Mildenhall.”

As the aircraft were being prepared for sustained operations, all aspects of the wing were working together to make it happen, to include security forces, logistics, civil engineering and force support, just to name a few.

“To put on an exercise this dynamic and of this magnitude takes a tremendous amount of coordination, dedication, and obviously teamwork,” said Skalko.

A high point of the exercise was an ‘elephant walk’ of 12 KC-135s demonstrating a show of force maneuver, followed by sustained 24 hour, non-stop operations.

Overall, leadership was very impressed at the wing’s performance.
“I’m extremely proud of the Airmen of the ‘Bloody Hundredth’,” said Col. Christopher Amrhein, 100th ARW commander.

“We set out to challenge the wing to perform well beyond our day-to-day operations and our Airmen rose to the occasion. Every shop on this base, every Air Force specialty, played a part in making this exercise a success.”